Cellphones, viruses, and contingency plans
Cellphones are attractive targets for viruses, worms and other malware, especially as these devices gain processing power and functionality. Many cellphones have more processing power than my first laptop!!
Its just a matter of time until a particularly nasty piece of malware attacks.
A number of new cellphone viruses have been discovered in April alone!! (for example, see F-Secure's Blog). Experts disagree on how serious cellphone threats are, and their opinions are all over the spectrum. It is wise to take some simple steps to protect against threats.
Many people's professional lives run on a laptop and a cell phone. I protect my laptop and do backups at least twice a week - my often rapidly changing business data and work live there, and I can't afford to lose several days work or productivity if a problem occurs. Most people and businesses take similar precautionary steps.
Most people ignore their cellphones and cellphone data. It's shocking how many (especially small) businesses have key customer contact data only on employees cellphones. This often includes "official phone numbers that can be looked up with some inconvenience as well as other "unofficial" phone numbers that are not easily available if at all. Many of my clients prefer I contact them via their cellphone or sometimes their home numbers.
Always backup your cellphone data!! I maintain both hardcopy and softcopy of critical numbers usually accessed via my cellphone.
If your cellphone stops working have a contingency plan - doesn't matter if its disabled by a virus or a dunk in the ocean, it's a problem! I can go less than one mile from my office to a cellphone store and within 20 minutes walk out with a new phone WITH THE SAME NUMBER so clients can contact me as usual - do you have any idea if you can do this??
Particularly if your cellphone runs the Symbian operating system (the biggest target to date as over 10 million phones run the Symbian OS), consider anti virus software. Many vendors including Kaspersky Labs and F-Secure have products available
Your cellphone might suddenly stop functioning. It would be an inconvenience, but with some thought beforehand, it'll ONLY be an inconvenience and nothing more.
Its just a matter of time until a particularly nasty piece of malware attacks.
A number of new cellphone viruses have been discovered in April alone!! (for example, see F-Secure's Blog). Experts disagree on how serious cellphone threats are, and their opinions are all over the spectrum. It is wise to take some simple steps to protect against threats.
Many people's professional lives run on a laptop and a cell phone. I protect my laptop and do backups at least twice a week - my often rapidly changing business data and work live there, and I can't afford to lose several days work or productivity if a problem occurs. Most people and businesses take similar precautionary steps.
Most people ignore their cellphones and cellphone data. It's shocking how many (especially small) businesses have key customer contact data only on employees cellphones. This often includes "official phone numbers that can be looked up with some inconvenience as well as other "unofficial" phone numbers that are not easily available if at all. Many of my clients prefer I contact them via their cellphone or sometimes their home numbers.
Always backup your cellphone data!! I maintain both hardcopy and softcopy of critical numbers usually accessed via my cellphone.
If your cellphone stops working have a contingency plan - doesn't matter if its disabled by a virus or a dunk in the ocean, it's a problem! I can go less than one mile from my office to a cellphone store and within 20 minutes walk out with a new phone WITH THE SAME NUMBER so clients can contact me as usual - do you have any idea if you can do this??
Particularly if your cellphone runs the Symbian operating system (the biggest target to date as over 10 million phones run the Symbian OS), consider anti virus software. Many vendors including Kaspersky Labs and F-Secure have products available
Your cellphone might suddenly stop functioning. It would be an inconvenience, but with some thought beforehand, it'll ONLY be an inconvenience and nothing more.
posted by Ted Demopoulos at 12:07 AM
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