Most computer users worry about securing their PCs, but few people pay the same sort of attention to their smartphones. That's a bad situation, according to some experts.
Smartphones, such as iPhones, BlackBerrys or Android-based phones, are actually handheld personal computers. Especially powerful devices such as Motorola's Atrix phone, which functions as the "brains" of a lightweight laptop, show that smartphones have the potential to replace PCs in the coming decade.
"The challenge is that basically, these smartphones are becoming computing devices," said Don DeBolt, director of threat research at Islandia, N.Y., security firm Total Defense.
Yet many consumers are careless about smartphone security, even though they install software, open email attachments, update Twitter feeds and Facebook pages and even bank online using their handheld devices.
Those are actions that only a PC could have done a few years ago. But just because they're done on a smartphone instead doesn’t mean that they're any less immune from hackers.
Apple and its iTunes store offer some measure of safety because apps available there are on a "whitelist" — Apple won't make them available to users without checking them out first. (This safety feature doesn't apply to "jailbroken" iPhones, which can install non-authorized apps.)
In contrast, Google uses a "blacklist" for its Android Market apps — it'll remove them only if there's a demonstrated problem, and there's nothing to prevent users from installing "off-road" Android apps from other sources.
It's not clear how long Google can continue a security policy that's essentially "release first, ask questions later."
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