Communications and Technology Industry Research

F-Secure Corporation (News - Alert) has announced mobile security results from its Online Wellbeing survey, which found that most mobile phone users fail to install security software On their cell phones even though they know that malware can infect their phones via Bluetooth.

 

More than half the userS surveyed by the firm felt that it was the responsibility of the mobile phone users to get their mobile phones protected, but others users, especially in U.S., said  that it was the responsibility of the mobile phone carriers to provide their mobile phones with proper security.

 

Only 11 percent of Germans believed their mobile phone provider should be in charge of security, compared with over 32 percent in France.

 

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, said, “While the mobile threat is low at present, it’s only a matter of time before Internet criminals start utilizing the growing potential that smartphone usage presents to them. So far there have been about 400 mobile viruses detected, but as smartphones replace PCs as the dominant Internet platform, we can expect this figure to rise.”

 

About 28 percent of the respondents said they used their cell phones to access the Internet and a  large majority, 86 percent admitted to having no mobile security.

 

The U.K. also has the highest number of customers (47 percent) accessing the Internet through their mobile phones and the least number of customers who have installed security software on their mobiles.

 

 

The survey also uncovered that only 15 percent of respondents were under the impression WiFi connections are safe, while 21 percent regarded Bluetooth connections as safe.

 

Independent research1, commissioned by F-Secure, questioned Web users aged 20 to 40 across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France and Germany about their knowledge of online and mobile security issues for the study.