Mobile phones are great for phishers

Their technology underscores a thorny issue that promises to demand more attention as users increasingly reach to their mobile phones when they want to go online.

PC browsers have Web address bars, green warning lights and other features to help Internet users know if they're being tricked by phishers, nevertheless that's not the case in the mobile world. Phones are so small there often just isn't space for these protections.

Jakobsson thinks there could be a surge of spoofing in the at once year or so as the mobile phone becomes the most popular way to surf the Web. "It just makes sense to me, to attack the predominant platform," he said.

Right now, there are not a lot of phishing attacks that exactly go afterwards mobile users, according to Dave Jevans, chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Nevertheless he agreed that phishing e-mails are more effective when they end up in mobile-phone mailboxes. "The antiphishing technologies on the mobile phone are inferior compared to what is available on the Windows platform," he said.

Phone makers have security checks to prevent malicious programs from getting included in their app stores. Nevertheless a criminal could distribute a program that seemed legitimate at a glance and at the time flip a switch on a server somewhere and immediately turn it into a password-stealing phishing program, said Kevin Mahaffey, chief innovation officer and founder of mobile security software vendor Lookout. "It's this whole new world of mobile malware that gets around the security controls," he said.

Robert McMillan covers computer security and general research breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com

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