Linked: Smartphone Phishing Attacks Increasing
Hackers are moving to mobile because most of us are moving to mobile. That’s not surprising, and given the fact that it’s a little more difficult to spot on a mobile device, that’s just a bonus.
“Spotting a phishing attack on a smartphone is much harder than on a computer. Think about it. When you get an email on a computer, determining the originating email address is pretty easy even if the display name is familiar. On a smartphone, typically you just see the display name and not the actual email address. It takes a lot more work and jumping through hoops to expose the actual originating email address. “
John has some suggestions about staying extra vigilant when you are looking at messages on a mobile device, he even suggests this as a reason for firms to ban BYOD and issue mobile devices to their users, but I’m going to respectfully disagree with that suggestion. Not because it isn’t more secure, but because that horse has already left the barn. Most organizations are in no position to suddenly start managing phone and mobile contracts for hundreds of employees, users have no desire to have an extra mobile device, and managers are not going to simply accept employees with no mobile access to email and company communications.
It’s just not the world we live in.
Still, that difference aside, this is a good reminder to think twice about what you’re seeing, and not seeing, when looking at your phone screen.
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