Mobile malware threats have increased with the advancements in mobile handsets, with researchers saying the mobile security market will hit the US$389 million mark by end of this year.
This includes revenues for paid apps, partnerships with manufacturers and operators, white label deals, and dataset sales. To date there have been over 130 billion downloads of mobile security apps, according to ABI Research.
The mobile security threat is rising with every new development in the smartphone sector. ABI Research said mobile security threats have grown from nearly 430 in the first quarter of 2011 to about 17,440 in the second quarter of 2012.
In Africa, this is a huge market that is less exploited and understood, experts say.
Daniel Kiilu, a network support engineer at Isolutions Associates, told HumanIPO that the biggest factor that leads to cyber threats is lack of knowledge on the matter.
“Clients are always reactive, not proactive. They look for solutions when the disaster has happened,” Kiilu said.
There have been other threats to mobile smartphones, including the increased use of QR Codes.
“With the increasing popularity of smartphones, mobile threats are on the rise. This has implications for security at the corporate level as well as for individual privacy,” Michela Menting, senior cyber security analyst, said.
“The mobile application security market is rife with vendors offering their wares. The priority now for end-users is understanding the issue at hand and finding the right offering that best suits their needs,” she added.
Maybe it would be a good time for app developers to sensitive mobile phone users on the dangers that lurk in the cyber world.
