Thursday, 14 February 2008

Study: Majority of Consumers Concerned Over Mobile Safety

Three out of four mobile consumers are concerned about the security of today’s and tomorrow’s mobile services, such as mobile multimedia downloads, mobile payments and mobile ticketing, according to a recent research done by McAfee.

The McAfree Mobile Security Report 2008 also revealed that:

• 86 percent of users are worried about security risks posed to their mobile handset such as fraudulent bill increases or information loss or theft

• More that one third (34 percent) of global mobile users question the general safety of mobile devices and services

• At least 79 percent of consumers are knowingly using unprotected devices, with an additional 15 percent unsure of security levels

• More than half of subscribers (59 percent) expect mobile operators to take primary responsibility for protecting mobile devices and services

While confidence levels for traditional voice and messaging services remain comparatively high, more than half of all respondents (55 percent) expressed concerns about mobile payments and banking services. More than 40 percent were worried about mobile multimedia downloads and mobile vouchers and ticketing. Frequent mobile Internet surfers showed levels of concern 80 percent higher than those who have never used such services. Overall, more than 72 percent of users expressed concerns regarding the safety of using emerging mobile services, with concern rates rising with market maturity.

According to the study, mobile security incidents may not yet rival the scale and scope of PC threats but they are increasing in volume and sophistication. More than one in ten (14 percent) of global mobile users have already been exposed to mobile virus incidents, either directly or they know someone who has been infected. This awareness strongly impacts user confidence with 80 percent worried about the possibility of a mobile virus infecting their friends and colleagues.

Mobile messaging is also growing in prevalence. More than a third of subscribers (38.6 percent) claim to typically receive ‘annoying’ spam messages at least once a month. In Japan this rises to more than a quarter (26.1 percent) getting spammed daily.

Despite growing concerns, at least 79 percent of consumers are knowingly using unprotected devices, with an additional 15 percent unsure of security levels. Almost 60 percent of mobile users expect mobile operators to take primary responsibility for protecting their mobile devices and services and more than half (56 percent) believe security features should be pre-installed on the handset at the time of purchase and provided free of charge.

“Concerns about specific mobile security risks or the loss of credibility in the reliability of services is a crucial issue for operators, particularly in mature markets. This research clearly highlights that consumer fears are growing in tandem with increased mobile functionality, jeopardizing the success of new revenue-generating services and increased operator ARPU,” said Victor Kouznetsov, senior vice president of McAfee Mobile Security.

The McAfee Mobile Security Report 2008 discusses in detail users’ experiences of traditional and emerging mobile services and their awareness and perceptions of mobile security issues. The research was conducted by Datamonitor among 2,000 mobile consumers with responses spread evenly across the US, UK and Japan.