Mobilization and the Big Security Opportunity

It seems like it was just yesterday that talking on a mobile phone made you cool. You were obviously important, walking around with the confidence that you could be reached at all times. Well, times have certainly changed. Roughly half the planet's population (over 4.1 billion people) now pay for what was once limited to a select few, according to a recent United Nations survey.

However, the widespread adoption of mobile phones is just one way communications have changed in the last 10 years, fostered in large part by the dramatic growth of the Internet. We want the ability not only to talk anywhere and anytime to anyone, but also to transact (banking, retail Increase Customer Sales with Email Marketing -- Free Trial from VerticalResponse, gaming, business, etc) at our convenience -- most notably through the Internet.

For example, more than 50 million people in the U.S. had undertaken some sort of online banking by the end of 2008, according to comScore, with many replacing traditional ways of transacting (e.g., checks) with electronic alternatives (e.g., online billpay).
So What?
What does this mean, other than we get to talk when and where we want to, and we don't have to be in the office or go to a bank to actually get things done?

Well, it means a few things:

1) the mass adoption of both the internet and mobile devices has attracted criminals who are aggressively conducting their trade on line;

2) mobile devices can actually be used by organizations today to help increase security; and

3) the convergence of the Internet and mobile devices, combined with the sophistication of those devices, is driving new user behaviors that need to be addressed quickly.

Criminals Get It

Around the same time that it was über cool to have a mobile phone, hackers were a disorganized bunch intent on creating mayhem, with only a few focused on trying to make money. Again, times have changed.

No longer is the threat from the lone basement hacker. Instead, sophisticated criminal organizations are intent on defrauding users. There were 49,084 active phishing sites detected in June 2009 alone, according to the latest report. That's the second-highest number recorded since APWG began reporting on this measurement.