Brussels, 15/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The industry of smartphones, which allow innumerable applications, is booming and has become the new target of cyber attackers. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has published a report on the security of “app-stores”, a special way used by the smartphone industry to deliver software to consumers and offer hundreds of thousands of different applications, or “apps”, to be downloaded onto smartphones. The report proposes “five lines of defence” that must be set in place to secure app-stores from malware. “Using malicious apps, attackers can easily tap into the vast amount of private data processed on smartphones such as confidential business emails, location data, phone calls, SMS messages and so on. Consumers are hardly aware of this”, explain the authors of the report, Marnix Dekker and Giles Hogben. They give a technical and practical analysis of malware threats for app-stores in under 20 pages, setting out ready-to-use recommendations that can be adapted to the different models of smartphones on the market. According to ENISA Director Udo Helmbrecht: “The number of malware attacks directed at smartphones still pales in comparison to PCs. This paper is a blueprint for how to maintain this head-start and address security across app-stores.” (IL/transl.jl)