Mobile phones have reached every nook and area of India. Even in remote villages of India, mobile phone services are available. Further, services like micro financing and payments, online bill payments, internet banking, etc have also extended the use of mobile phone for business, personal and professional purposes.This growth of mobile usage has also given rise to increasing cyber crimes and mobile phone related crimes. We have a poor track record of mobile security in India. Further, India is also not very enthusiastic about use of encryption and other security measures as well.
Mobile viruses and worms have further created problem for mobile users in India. The biggest hurdles before the mobile related uses in India pertain to use of weak encryption standards and non use of mobile cyber security mechanisms in India, informs Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law. Absence of encryption laws in India has further made the mobile security very weak in India, says Dalal.
The advent of 3G and smart phone has further added to the woes of mobile users in India. With Internet connection and downloading facilities, many viruses and worms are accidentally downloaded upon mobiles. With a low mobile security culture in India, these mobile sets remain compromised.
Cyber criminals have now started exploring mobile phones for committing various cyber crimes. Even Nigerian scams have been successfully committed by using mobile phone in India, informs Dalal. In fact, cyber criminals are specifically developing tools and codes that can exploit vulnerabilities in mobile phones, says Dalal.
There is an urgent need to spread awareness among mobile users of India regarding mobile security, mobile viruses, mobile worms and trojans. Similarly, India must also consider effective utilisation of encryption technology to safeguard mobile communications.
