From: InfoSec News (alertsinfosecnews.org)
Date: Thu Aug 13 2009 - 04:10:22 CDT

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http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136593/Android_security_chief_Mobile_phone_attacks_coming?taxonomyId=17

By Robert McMillan
August 12, 2009
IDG News Service

As smartphones become more popular, they're going to get some unwanted
attention from criminals, Google Inc.'s head of Android security said
today.

"The smartphone OS will become a major security target," said Android
Security Leader Rich Cannings, speaking at the Usenix Security
Symposium. Attackers can already hit millions of victims with a
smartphone attack, and soon that number will be even larger. "Personally
I think this will become an epiphany to malware authors," he said.

Microsoft's Windows operating system is the prime target of criminal
attacks, and hackers have generally steered clear of mobile devices.
Security experts say that this is because mobile phones haven't
traditionally stored a lot of sensitive data, and because there are so
many different devices to attack, it's hard to create a single virus
that can infect a large number of users.

That may be changing as more and more people start using iPhones,
BlackBerries, and -- Google hopes -- Android-based phones such as the
Samsung I7500.

[...]

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