Mobile Security: Bad News, Consumer
January 1, 2020
An online information service called Hindu Business Line has become a source for amusing digital information. Consider the factoids included in “Most People Are Not Aware of Malware on Their Mobile’.” A word of caution, the Web page may redirect some users to a malicious site, which makes the information just so much more special.
Here are some of the factoids:
- 23 percent of organizations in Indian run a risk of malware attacks. (DarkCyber thinks that the risk is much higher because malware is a growth business and most users are clueless when it comes to preventing and neutralizing mobile centric malware. Example: The page for this content.)
- It takes about a year for a person to realize that a mobile device has been affected. (DarkCyber thinks that most users dispose of their mobile phone before the malware has been discovered.)
- Globally 25 million devices are infected. (DarkCyber wants to point out that there are about 4.5 billion mobile phones globally. Source: Statista. The 25 million number seems quite modest and probably wildly off the mark.)
- Google had 16 apps on its store which were malware mechanisms. (DarkCyber wants to remind its gentle readers that these are apps Google said it knew about. The real number of malware apps is not known by users and Google is not a Chatty Cathy on this subject.)
Yep, great article. Outstanding in fact.
Stephen E Arnold, January 1, 2020
Happy New Year, Security Buffs
January 1, 2020
DarkCyber spotted a write up which revealed an unpleasant (not inconvenient) truth. Navigate to “Complexity Is the Biggest Enemy for Cybersecurity Practitioner.” The idea is that security problems exist due to complexity. Here’s a passage that intrigued us:
If you look at all the breaches, whether they’re on cloud or on premise, you will find that those organizations had the technology, but they didn’t have a synchronized policy. So there has been a gap in the policy deployment because they have been using different tools with different policy engines and configurations or many features haven’t been turned on because existence of many tools creates so much complexity, which is the biggest enemy for any cybersecurity practitioner.
Over time, humans make things more complicated. A simple solution is often neither desirable or possible. Thus, gaps exist, opportunities for mischief abound, and organizations remain vulnerable in ways not understood or anticipated.
What’s the fix?
The expert opining in the article has an answer: “An API based approach.”
Complex?
Yeah, that’s the challenge the cybersecurity industry faces. Its simple solutions are too complex for many potential customers.
Net net: Become a cyber security consultant. The tyro will be wrong, but so will the experts.
Stephen E Arnold, January 1, 2019
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