Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Smartphone As Your Most Dangerous Possession

Posted by timothy on from the keep-that-thing-away-from-my-family dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "CNN reports that now that smartphones double as wallets and bank accounts — allowing users to manage their finances, transfer money, make payments, deposit checks and swipe their phones as credit cards — smartphones have become very lucrative scores for thieves and with 30% of phone subscribers owning iPhones, BlackBerrys and Droids, there are a lot of people at risk. Storing a password and keeping your phone locked is a good start, but it's not going to protect you from professional fraudsters. 'Don't think that having an initial password set on your phone can stop people from getting in there,' says Nikki Junker, a victim advisor at the Identity Theft Resource Center. 'It's a very low level of protection — you can even find 30-second videos on how to crack smartphone passwords on YouTube.'"

6 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. The power of technology.... by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It continues to make almost everything more convenient, including ruining you.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  2. Re:Security of a smart phone by CharlyFoxtrot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The security on a smart phone isn't any worse (in many cases better, even) than that on most people's personal computers. The OS question is irrelevant, the big difference is that it's much easier to gain physical access. Just be vigilant and be have a plan ready to immediately block all access if you do lose your phone.

    --
    If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
  3. Re:I do not think that word means what you think i by corsec67 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't own a car? That is probably the "most dangerous" class of item that people own.

    --
    If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
  4. Re:It Can Get Worse... by neumayr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    (Took a little while to recover from that ridiculous commercial)
    Seems like that device is made to accept credit card payments, not to pay people with credit cards. How does that make losing ones phone any worse than it already is?

    --
    Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
  5. Re:i'm kind of a big deal by The_mad_linguist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fifty years later, their civilization was, practically speaking, destroyed.

    Just saying.

  6. Re:I do not think that word means what you think i by ifiwereasculptor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You don't have to reload a station wagon on a crowded sidewalk...