Security worries, spam dog mobile finance
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Two-thirds of mobile device users say they are concerned about security, preventing many users from adopting mobile services such as banking or shopping, according to a new Harris Interactive poll commissioned by Cloudmark.
Mobile spam, including phishing attacks seeking personal information, was also shown to be impacting about 44 percent of mobile device owners.
"The prevalence of spam will only continue to rise as financial gain for spammers continues to increase," said Jamie de Guerre, CTO of Cloudmark. "For new services to succeed, it will be imperative for mobile operators to assure their customers of a secure environment for transactions and to ensure that mobile spam does not impact the delivery of legitimate messages."
Nearly half (46 percent) of those who said they were concerned about the IT security of their devices said their worries prevented them from conducting activities on their mobile device. The most impacted service is mobile transactions such as paying bills.
The survey found 79 percent of mobile device owners who have never sent or received confidential information of any kind through their device, Cloudmark said.
Wireless users in the US received more than 1.1 million spam text messages in 2007, a 38 percent increase from 2006, according to Senator Olympia Snowe, who is sponsoring legislation called the m-Spam Act to strengthen anti-spam enforcement.
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