A recent Belgian economic mission to China was reportedly a target of multiple cyberattacks. According to multiple news reports, attacks were carried out at a hotel in Beijing where the convoy was staying. Hackers placed three mobile masts around the hotel to which all connections go, and targeted smartphones with the Bluetooth function turned on.
This attack is the latest example of hackers knowing full well that not only are mobile devices an endpoint containing the same critical and private data as traditional endpoints – laptops and computers, for example – but, unlike those traditional endpoints, most mobile devices are left unprotected.
While companies and government agencies spend billions of dollars protecting laptops, computers and networks, very little is spent on mobile devices.
And they need to do so. Gartner’s just released “Market Guide for Mobile Threat Defense, 2019”. The report states that in 2018, mobile attacks almost doubled compared to the previous year, reaching 116.5 million.
Verizon’s Mobile Security Index, 2019 indicates that one out of three enterprise attacks involves a mobile device and almost half of enterprise leaders who did not spend on mobile security suffered a compromise. Those who invested on mobile security reported less than half of the breaches. Most incidents were reported as major or major with lasting repercussions.
“Unfortunately, these types of attacks are not going away anytime soon,” said Asaf Peleg, a vice president in Zimperium’s research division. “The reality is, hackers remain persistent when it comes to breaching mobile devices. We remain vigilant and continue to be the global leader in mobile threat defense.”
Zimperium’s solutions are developed to thwart cyberattacks. We are the global leader in mobile threat defense (MTD), offering the only real-time, on-device, machine learning-based protection against Android and iOS threats, including the detection of device, network, phishing and malicious app attacks.
