Mobile devices are now an integral part of people’s everyday lives. Many people check their mobile phones daily for work, social media, driving navigation, or other activities.  Mobile phones are becoming more popular due to their increasing capabilities and the increased number of apps. Google Play Store has around 3.48 Million apps available for Android users. Meanwhile, the Apple App Store offers access to approximately 2.22 million apps for iOS users. 

The functionality of a mobile phone was once limited to texting, calling, and taking photos. But today, mobile phones have other uses in people’s daily lives. As people’s dependence on smartphones increased over the years, it has also led to increased vulnerabilities to security threats. Over the years, multiple account takeovers and SIM swapping attacks have been reported. As mobile phone owners use their phones for different purposes, scams and mobile threats increase sophistication.

Network spoofing is a mobile security threat that involves cybercriminals creating a fake network access point and pretending it to be a legitimate network. These hackers trick people into believing these access points to be reliable networks. Once users connect to these fake network access points, hackers can access any information that users send across the web.

A phishing attack on mobile devices uses a disguised message to steal user information. The message contains links that direct users to a form asking them for their username, password, or other information. The primary targets of phishing attacks include login credentials, passwords, and user credit card numbers. A passwordless authentication solution that can be integrated into your system can eliminate the threat of phishing attacks.

Mobile threats include spyware, mobile account takeover, and poor security systems. Because mobile phones are becoming more essential for accessing systems and performing everyday tasks, criminals are increasingly targeting mobile phones to exploit their vulnerabilities.

New ways are being created to minimize the risks and threats associated with mobile phone use. FIDO2, or Fast Identity Online protocol, is a game-changer in this endeavor for fraud prevention that aims to remove the use of passwords and their security vulnerabilities online. It is used as a standard for creating passwordless authentication solutions, and as a result, user accounts can be much harder to hack.

To learn more about the different mobile security risks and how to prevent them, here is an infographic from Login ID.