Hackers are out to stymie your smartphone. Last week, security researchers uncovered yet another strain of malicious software aimed at smartphones that run Google's popular Android operating system.
The application not only logs details about incoming and outgoing phone calls, it also records those calls. That came a month after researchers discovered a security hole in Apple's iPhones, which prompted the German government to warn Apple about the urgency of the threat. Security experts say attacks on smartphones are growing fast - and attackers are becoming smarter about developing new techniques. "We're in the experimental stage of mobile malware where the bad guys are starting to develop their business models," said Kevin Mahaffey, co-founder of Lookout, a San Francisco-based maker of mobile security software. Wrong-doers have infected PCs with malicious software, or malware, for decades. Now, they are fast moving to smartphones as the devices become a vital part of everyday life. Some 38% of American adults now own an iPhone, BlackBerry or other mobile phone that runs the Android, Windows or WebOS operating systems, according to data from Nielsen. The smartphone's usefulness, allowing people to organize their digital lives with one device, is also its allure to criminals. All at once, smartphones have become wallets, email lockboxes, photo albums and Rolodexes. And because owners are directly billed for services bought with smartphones, they open up new angles for financial attacks. The worst programs cause a phone to rack up unwanted service charges, record calls, intercept text messages and even dump emails, photos and other private content directly onto criminals' servers.
Microsoft on Tuesday made the latest version of its mobile phone software available to handset partners as it seeks to claw back market share fromApple andGoogle.
The Redmond, Washington-based personal computer software powerhouse said the update to its Windows Phone operating system, code-named "Mango," features over 500 new features and faster browsing with Internet Explorer 9 (IE9).
"This marks the point in the development process where we hand code to our handset and mobile operator partners to optimizeMango for their specific phone and network configurations," Windows Phone corporate vice presidentTerry Myerson said in a blog post.
Microsoft unveiled Mango in May, promising it will be available by year's end for free to existing Windows Phone 7 customers and will ship on new phones fromSamsung, LG andHTC and new partnersAcer, Fujitsu andZTE.
Microsoft said it is also working on a Mango handset in its labs with new partner Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone titan which announced in February it would begin using Microsoft's platform as itssmartphone operating system.
When Mango-powered phones hit stores they'll likely be facing competition from a new iPhone from Apple and the latest versions of handsets running Google's Android software.
According to Gartner, Android will power nearly half of the smartphones worldwide by the end of next year with a 49.2 percent market share.
The market share for the iPhone's was forecast to remain relatively stable at 18.9 percent in 2012.
Windows will account for 5.6 percent of the smartphone market at the end of 2011 but will rise to 10.8 percent in 2012, according to Gartner.