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Tag: Lookout Mobile Security

  • Americans Lost $30 Billion In Cell Phones Last Year

    You read it right, Americans lost enough cell phones in 2011 to account for $30 billion. That’s outrageous and if you’ve ever lost your phone you know it is a completely aggravating experience. I’ll tell you, I lost my phone once. No clue where it went, but I was really upset. First I wanted to call my friends and bitch to them about the whole thing, but guess what? I didn’t know any of their phone numbers. How could I have been so stupid?

    I haven’t memorized anybodies number since I got a cellphone years ago. To make matters worse, I had to call the insurance company to have them send me a new one. How am I supposed to call those folks, I don’t have a phone? I had to find a pay phone, which as you know isn’t as easy as it used to be. So do yourself a favor, keep a hard copy of those numbers in a deferent place. Also back-up the other information you store on there.

    Anyway, back to the study that delivered us this interesting bit of information. Lookout Mobile Security conducted the study and they broke the loses down by city, and included colorful fact like when the devices were lost and how. One interesting stat is most users misplaced their phones between the hours of 9pm and 2am. I wonder what was happening there?

    Regardless, most things are lost in the dark despite our dispositions at the time. It’s also interesting to note that Philadelphia and Seattle, along with Oakland are the top three losers of cell phones. I am sure there’s no causal relationship here, but just in case I would leave your cell phone at home when visiting these cities. Actually, you better keep them on you in case you get mugged.

    To be honest, the cities that were the biggest losers of cell phones were the ones with the largest concentrations of people, so others who made the list include Boston, New York, Cleveland, and Detroit. All that money we spend on phone insurance might be worth it. Statistically speaking, it is very likely to happen.

    What can you do? Many companies, including Lookout, who published the study, offer recovery services for your phone. In fact, I bet almost all of us have heard of Apple’s ‘Find My iPhone‘ app. For Droid users there’s the ‘Where’s My Droid‘ app. If you haven’t considered some of these solutions, they could save a you a lot of aggravation for something that will inevitably happen.

    I’m still waiting for Apple to come out with the ‘Find My Wallet’ app., but in the meantime I can only hope that it’s with my phone once I track that thing down. Keep an eye on your phones after 9pm and stay out of Philadelphia. Thanks for reading.

  • Is Your Mobile Device Secure?

    Mobile devices today are used for just about everything. From gaming to social networking to banking to office tasks – nearly anything you need to do, you can do it on your mobile device. It’s funny to think about, but the phone features are almost secondary with some users.

    Kevin Mahaffey, the CTO and Co-founder of Lookout Mobile Security, told us that mobile devices have evolved from telephones to computers that we can put into our pockets.

    “Mobile devices are gaining a whole new level of importance in the world,” he said. “They know who you are, who you talk to, [and] they might even have financial and location information about you.”

    Because the functions of mobile devices have created ease and convenience for consumers both in their professional and personal lives, most users don’t think about being in danger of security attacks. However, according to security software vendor Trusteer, mobile users are three times more vulnerable to phishing attacks than desktop computer users are. This is a pretty unsettling stat, isn’t it?

    How secure do you feel in the transactions that you do on your mobile device? Let us know.

    Mahaffey told us that users are susceptible to three primary types of attacks: phishing, drive-by downloads, and exploits. At this point, the phishing attacks are the most common with scammers offering links that would compromise confidential information.

    Drive-by downloads, which occur when a site tricks users to download something without seeking consent, are also beginning to gain some traction on mobile devices. Exploits are also a concern for mobile since a bad site could use a flaw in the browser or software to gain control over the device.

    What’s more, Mahaffey said that we could expect these attacks to increase as more devices come to the market. Consumers are also feeling more comfortable with their mobiles, which means that they are becoming more risky in their behavior.

    “Now that everyone’s reading email, browsing the Web, [and] downloading apps, there are a large number of ways that the bad guys can get in,” he said.

    For these reasons, Lookout Mobile Security recently introduced Safe Browsing to help protect users from scammers. The technology scans every url a user visits to check for any malicious activity. The interesting thing is that, unless it detects something, a user would never know it was there.  It also doesn’t impact the browsing speed for users.
    If the technology does detect something, it gives a warning message to the user. From there, the user can decide whether or not it wants to continue.

    As part of this launch, Lookout also announced a partnership with Sprint that will bring the Safe Browsing protection to Sprint users. Mahaffey said Lookout’s goal was to “make people happy and more confident in their phones,” which they believe is furthered by this partnership.

    In terms of basic security advice, he told us that users should be careful about what they click on and where they download apps. He recommends determining if the developer is reputable, if the app is safe, and if the area of the Internet is shady. In addition, he points out that users should check their phone bill since scammers might try to slip in extra charges.

    Does this information make you hesitant about using your mobile device for everything?