Businesses and governments must join forces to bridge the gap between unemployed youth and the ICT skills shortage, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of the digital agenda, Neelie Kroes has said.
Addressing the Digital Agenda Assembly in Dublin yesterday, she said member states run the risk of losing a generation if they don't invest in the future. "I see a big potential of ICT jobs for young people but also a paradox: there are five million unemployed under 25 and there will be 900,000 unfilled ICT jobs by 2015."
The assembly also heard of the increasing threat of cybercrime due to a rise in the use of mobile devices.
Kristo Lehtonen, head of European policies at Nokia Siemens Networks, said consumers are less conscious about security for their smartphones than laptops and desktop PCs and do not consider phones as computers with the same needs for secure passwords, encryption, anti-virus and firewalls.
He told delegates that members of the public say they are worried about cyber security when it comes to their mobile devices, and yet they only have basic protection. “They just about have a password for their smartphone and they use passwords like their mother’s name or their birthday which can be hacked very quickly. The user in cyberspace often does not know the risks involved which is why they don’t know what to do when they are presented with a warning message saying a certificate is invalid.”
Paul Degan, a technology expert with the Department of Communications, said mobile devices are functionally equivalent to mini computers, which consumers often forget, adding that smartphones despite being one of the most convenient electronic gadgets also pose a huge security risk.
This is because members of the public use their mobile devices to make online purchases, manage their bank accounts, email corporate data and store confidential data, while at the same time having blasé attitudes to downloading apps. “We go to great lengths to protect our laptops and PCs with antivirus software, firewalls, etc, but the same protection is not afforded to mobile devices.”
He said the growth of mobile malware, and user ignorance to security is putting devices at risk, which will become an increased risk in years to come with technology research firm Gartner predicting less companies will provide work phones. As a result, users will have vast amounts of personal and corporate data on the same phone.
He said hackers were setting up fake WiFi hot spots and connections, through which a user can search the internet. However, while the user is online, the hacker can see what the user is doing to steal information.
“The fake access point can see what you are looking at on the internet. Wifi was built for functionality. Security was an after thought.”
He said a user should be suspicious if a web address contains the letters “HTTP” at the start as opposed to “HTTPS” as the “S” stands for secure.
“I don’t want to be scaring anyone or coming across as a doom and gloom merchant but there are ways in which applications can make their way on to your device without you knowing. They don’t appear in your apps so you can’t see they are there.”
HP chief technologist David Chalmers said there has been a 68 per cent increase in attacks involving mobile applications, adding it now takes 416 days on average to detect a breach.
“Since 2010 the time it takes to resolve a (cyber) attack has grown by 71 per cent despite increased functionality of the tools available and awareness.”
