Cyber crooks will mainly focus on mobile devices now

As smartphones and tablets are gaining momentum cyber criminals shift their focus to mobile devices to infiltrate malware. A new report from McAfee titled McAfee Threats Report for Q4 2010 reveals that new mobile malware threats in 2010 increased by 46 percent over the previous year.

The report states: "As in most crimes it's a matter of opportunity, and cybercriminals currently have a window of opportunity to exploit a variety of mobile platforms. More consumers are using mobile devices and tablets in their daily lives as well as at work. Enterprises must now support more devices than ever before, in effect extending their corporate firewalls and services to places they may not be prepared for."

According to Adam Wosotowsky, principal engineer at McAfee Labs, palm-sized gadgets will soon become primary if not alone computing platform people use and thus a much bigger target for malware and cyber attacks.

As security vendors have succeeded in wrestling PC based malware hackers mobile devices remain poorly protected. With rich expertise and skills perpetrators can apply what they have learned in the PC arena to quickly exploit weaknesses in mobile devices.