VULNERABILITIES OF SMARTPHONES
Shakuntala P. Kulkarni, Sachin Bojewar · 2015
Nowadays, mobile devices are important part of our lives. Mobile phones allow us to access many services. Current Smartphones offer capabilities of traditional personal computers. Other than the traditional functionality of the phone that is calling, various other functionalities are provided by phones. There are different types of connectivity available in mobile phones such as GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Due to these facilities, there is a huge increase in use of smartphones. As the advantages of smartphone have increased, there is increase in vulnerabilities of Smartphone as well. Smartphones are easy targets for malware writers. As the vulnerabilities increase, attacks also increase. There are many risks with smartphones. Phone might contain confidential data like bank details. It might also have private data like photos, music, videos etc. If a phone is lost or stolen, all the data stored in phone will be lost as well as leaked. Through various applications, smartphone might unintentionally leak information. Attacker may try to collect confidential information such as credit card details, passwords etc. by using fake applications, SMS, Emails which appears to be genuine. This is known as phishing attack. Attackers may also use spyware attack to attack Smartphones. Smartphones may have spyware application installed, which leaks personal data of user. There are many types of attacks. To save oneself from the attacks, and reduce the vulnerabilities, user must be careful and take few precautions. In this paper, vulnerabilities of smartphones, the various types of attacks on smartphones, and measures to be taken to protect oneself from the attack are discussed in this paper.