英闻天下——440 Smartphone Users Face Increasing Threats

 　　The number of smartphone users in China has exceeded 300 million. However, Chinese smartphone users face increasing threats from malicious 1 applications, with the rising number of applications designed to hack 2 the phones' operating systems. Based on statistics by the National Computer network Emergency Response technical Team, the variety of mobile phone viruses has increased by 25 times over the past year.

 
　　Zhang Wan 3 takes a closer look.
 
　　According to statistics by China's National Computer network Emergency Response Technical Team, the number of mobile phone virus samples reached nearly 163,000, which was 25 times higher than in 2011.
 
　　Media reports say one virus attacked about 1.17 million mobile phones last year. The virus might creep into the server and send junk messages with ads to your contacts.
 
　　Department Director of China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Zhou Yonglin says smartphones running the Android system were the biggest victims.
 
　　"More than 80 percent of the viruses target the Android system. When we analyzed 4 the nature of the malicious application, we found three categories of them, including malicious fee deduction 5 apps, rogue 6 apps and phone bill consumption apps. For the rogue apps, you never know when they are installed and cannot remove them from your mobile phone."
 
　　Currently, most brands of smartphones except Apple and Nokia are running the Android system. Anti-virus expert Fu Sheng says they have found several characteristics in the smartphone viruses.
 
　　"Based on our recent survey, at least 63 percent of the users have one malicious advertising 7 app in their smartphones, while about 81 percent of the smartphone users have at least one malicious app that may reveal their private information. Also we found some hackers 8 would re-pack these popular apps such as Angry Bird and make them into malicious apps that can steal private information."
 
　　Experts remind smartphone users to be cautious when downloading game apps and mobile payment apps.
 
　　Apart from malicious apps targeting smartphones, internet security has also become a big concern in China. According to a report by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team published on March 19, online attacks originating from IP addresses and servers in other countries and regions have grown sharply.
 
　　Greater international cooperation to thwart 9 cyber-attacks, boost online security and end groundless accusations 10 were some of the recommendations of a key report on internet security.
 
　　The report by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team says the Chinese government is working with 91 foreign organizations, covering 51 countries, and has signed 12 international agreements on cyber-protection. It says the team handled 4,063 online threats within the country last year.
 
　　The team's administration and operation director and a leading specialist on internet security Zhou Yonglin says cyber attacks from overseas servers are the key concern of the internet security watchdog.
 
　　The report says in 2012, Zhou's team tackled 961 cross-border online attacks in cooperation with overseas organizations, a 69 percent increase from 2011. Almost 15 million computers were affected 11 in 73,000 attacks originating from servers in foreign countries or regions last year.
 
　　Some experts say it is more important to boost awareness 12 of potential threats to Chinese internet users and suggested that small websites install software to prevent online attacks.
 
　　For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.