How big a threat is there with bad guys hacking into cell phones?
While the threat of bad guys hacking into your phone may remain minimal, it isn’t non-existent. In fact, one security expert created an attack on the iPhone – sending a virus by text message — that is basically unstoppable. The question is what are you going to do about it? There is a trade off to be made. Features that give phones their utility, like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, also make them vulnerable to attack. I spoke to some security experts about relative risks to help phone owners decide which steps were worth taking to protect their phones. The first thing to keep in mind is that smartphones are really tiny computers. “As the phone becomes more and more like a desktop, they have the same issues,” Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer for the Internet Storm Center, which tracks Internet threats. In fact, security experts are experiencing a certain sense of déjà vu. “We are about at the point with phones that we were with desktops in the ’80s,” said Michael Gregg, president of Sup
