Smartphones – not smart enough for Korean government officials

This week the Korean government has been forced to review the use of Smartphones amongst its officials.
The easily accessible mobile internet feature – a main selling point for smartphones – purportedly poses a potential threat to security, with a new government sponsored test revealing that the browsing feature exposes users to wiretapping.
Of course, we’re already painfully aware that without the correct preventative measures, our laptops and PCs are wide open to malicious software, allowing hackers to nose around our personal information to their heart’s content.
The discovery that our mobile phones can provide yet another playground for nefarious snoopers is not only a concern for the Korean government, either.
With around thirty thousand people in the country using their phone to manage their finances,  crafty criminals don’t even need to go to the bother of stealing your bank card, but can trickily tap in to your mobile.
Malicious software can easily appear on phones, carried in some of the hundreds of third party applications downloaded daily, leaving those app-happy users the most vulnerable.
Whilst the Korean government has decided to suspend the use of smartphones amongst its officials, other users have also been warned to download security software to protect themselves.
The Korean Communication Commission (KCC), having set up a ‘Smartphone information protection taskforce’ is taking the matter very seriously indeed, fighting on the front line against the perceived threat.
Let’s hope that the length of time it takes the commission to find solutions is not in any way connected to the length of the name it has given itself.