From CNN Money.
"Forget what's in your wallet -- beware your smartphone. It's becoming one of your most dangerous possessions.
If your phone was stolen a few years ago, the thief could make prank calls and read your text messages. Today, that person can destroy your social life -- you said what on Facebook?! -- and wreak havoc on your finances.
Now that smartphones double as wallets and bank accounts -- allowing users to manage their finances, transfer money, make payments, deposit checks and swipe their phones as credit cards -- they are very lucrative scores for thieves. And with 30% of phone subscribers owning iPhones, BlackBerrys and Droids, there are a lot of people at risk.
"It's crazy the amount of information on that phone -- it's like carrying a mini-computer around with you, except that more people know the settings on their computer than they do on their phones at this point," said Nikki Junker, social media coordinator and victim advisor at Identity Theft Resource Center. "People are incredibly at risk as technology improves."
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"In addition, the volume of mobile payments -- buying boots via Zappos iPhone app, for example, or paying bills -- is expected to climb to $214 billion by 2015, up from $16 billion in 2010, according to Aite Group, another financial services research firm.
And pay-by-phone is only going to get easier as our devices come embedded with Near Field Communication (NFC) devices that allow you to pay for your morning latte by waving your phone at the cash register.
Companies like Blaze Mobile and Bling Nation already let you pay major retailers by swiping your smartphone thanks to a sticker adhered to the outside of your phone. Meanwhile, an app created by mFoundry brings up an image of your Starbuck prepaid card barcode and lets you scan it in lieu of a credit card.
"A lot of players are now pushing to drive the contactless technology," said Gwenn Bezard, research director at Aite Group specializing in banking and payments. "While you're not going to wake up tomorrow and everyone is going to be using mobile payments, it's going to grow over the next years -- and from a very low base."
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"Bad guys are following where the people are going -- and people are going to smartphones," said Peabody. "As smartphone prices continue to decline and even more people get them, that's definitely the new place for bad guys to go."
While storing a password and keeping your phone locked is a good start, it's not going to protect you from professional fraudsters.
"Don't think that having an initial password set on your phone can stop people from getting in there," said Junker. "It's a very low level of protection -- you can even find 30-second videos on how to crack smartphone passwords on YouTube."
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"If you use mobile banking or make online payments frequently, you should invest in anti-virus protection and check with your bank about any security or identity theft protection features that you can enable.
Most smartphones also offer remote wipe-out services -- like MobileMe for the iPhone -- that automatically erase the information on your phone if you claim it as lost or stolen.
If you bank with your phone by accessing its website rather than opening an app, be extra careful when typing in the address. Some identity thefts create domains with the same address as major banks with two letters switched in hopes a consumer will accidentally land on the site and enter their user name and password, said Junker.
And make sure you immediately log out of any bank apps or sites where your financial information is stored as soon as you're finished. While your identity is still at risk if your phone is stolen, this will buy you time to wipe out your information as soon as you realize it's gone."
Sometimes smart phones aren't so smart after all. I'll get one when they've made them bullet-proof to such thieves.
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4 comments:
Thank you for reposting :)
It is for this reason why I don’t find the use of Smartphone to be truly practical. I can’t afford to lose my privacy and I don’t want to be paranoid at all times thinking if somebody is already able to spy on me through this device. A cell phone that doesn’t have network connectivity is a lot better to carry as there is no way for malwares to infiltrate it. Here’s a good content that discuss about that: http://www.just5.com/story.php?story=200920110144272063729780&page=blog
If you think they limit surveillance to just phones, you're wrong--ALL electronic devices are built with the capability to track you somehow: cell phones with GPS and speakers (ALL speakers operate both ways), TVs, radios, car stereos, computers with malware installed (namely anti-virus programs, and anything Microsoft puts out) that can read your entire computer contents and report them back to SOMEBODY every time you run a scan, update a program, or get on the web. The Patriot Act gives defense contractors the right to do this, and just about all companies with anything relating to the web, computers, phones, or social media are...you guessed it--defense contractors.
Will the Patriot Act ever expire? It's been renewed at least twice already--it's so effective, it ain't going away, even after the terror threat is long gone.
Right now, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, all anti-virus programs, and all smart phones (even some dumb ones) are tracking or listening to you. They're checking for kiddie porn on your computers, terrorist stuff, anything that can be considered treasonous (according to their loose definition), or anything that can be used against you in court.
Our cars aren't forgotten either: we have traffic cams, red light cams, black boxes, GPS in our cars, OnStar that both tracks your whereabouts AND listens to your conversations through your car speakers, as well as opens your car doors and kills your ignition with satellites, home security system and garage door opener companies that can open your doors to employee burglars with a backdoor over-ride code, and on and on. This is what the electronic age has brought us--we don't have obvious cameras everywhere like Britain, but we're being surveilled and made just as accessible.
If they can't get us from inside our homes and cars, they have Google maps and satellites that can find us from the sky. This is how they keep track of Amish, Luddites, and other non-tech groups in the name of preventing another Waco, Timothy McVeigh, Adam Gadan, or even Anwar Al-Walahi.
They also have help from public libraries, stores, banks, and other places you might use a credit or membership card, a special pass (like a bus or subway pass), electronic pass decal companies like EZ Pass (for tolls), ATM cards, debit cards, whatever can be read recording your use by date and time.
And if you can't afford any of the things listed above, they keep track of you through the public programs, the schools and colleges, the homeless shelters, post offices, anywhere that gets federal funding also has a mandate to report your/your kid's whereabouts and/or activities to SOMEONE.
Liberty? Freedom? Privacy? Not here, baby! Definitely not at our airports!!
...and you just know they're watching me right now--I purposely tripped their red flag system of filtering the internet by using certain words. So WATCH me--you won't find anything. In fact, you might learn a thing or two. :)
If you can't beat 'em, make 'em squirm.
....and don't even get me started on using THE CLOUD. Now businesses have a way of getting all their files searched systematically by shifting all their crap to the cloud.
We're wired 9 ways from Sunday, but it's all underground (so to speak). The worst part is that it'll never go away, now that the Powers That Be know all our business--they're addicted to always knowing.
What are they going to do when the power goes out? Electricity...don't forget the smart grid--now they'll have the capability to control our thermostats, meaning they can freeze or boil us out of our own homes, or even cut power...electricity runs just about everything these people need to surveil you, but getting off the grid isn't enough to ensure your privacy--there's still your car, your computer, your bank, your grocery store, your library, your gym, your phone...
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