Experts are cautioning device users to take greater care in protecting themselves against security issues.
Panda Security, a security vendor, recently released a statement that cautioned smartphone and tablet users to expect that mobile cybercrime will become increasingly creative throughout 2014, particularly through its social engineering.
The company predicted that this will be one of a number of forms of security issue that will be worsening next year.
The experts at Panda Security have forecasted that mobile cybercrime, as well as threats to corporate security, and ransomeware will be among the leading security issues that will be occurring in 2014. The report that the company released stated that social engineering is an area in which cyber criminals are provided with a great deal of flexibility for exercising their creative muscles. It said that “After vulnerabilities, the second most frequent cause of computer infections is… users themselves, who many times fall into the trap set by cyber-criminals.”
It cautioned that while there is a great deal of mobile cybercrime spread through email, social networking sites are building.
Social networking sites are becoming an increasingly important location for cyber criminals. Panda Security believes that Android will hold its position as the operating system that is most frequently targeted by these crooks. It said that next year could “set a new record for the number of threats targeting this platform.”
The company has also forecasted that the creation of new malware will also likely break a new record next year, although they said that the majority of the malware that will be formed will simply be a new variation of types that are already in existence. It is expected that vulnerabilities in software that is already quite widely used, such as Java, will also continue to be a major target.
At the same time, Panda Security also said that mobile cybercrime and ransomeware will continue to be among next year’s “most pervasive threats”. This involves the use of malware that demands a ransom from victims in order to be able to have their files or computers unlocked, or to have fake threats removed, among others.
