Dangers lurking in cell phone apps

People dump all kinds of apps onto their smartphones. The average iPhone user, for example, downloads nine a month. People use them to do banking or to store calendars and other files full of data about them.

But most folks don’t think twice about security, Jim Rendon writes at Smart Money. They should.

Anytime you download something onto your phone, you’re taking a risk it might include malware or spyware—software designed to do you harm. For example, one game hijacked Windows Mobile phones and used them to place calls to Somalia, running up hundreds of dollars in bills. (A spokesperson for Microsoft says the program wasn’t a Microsoft product, and consumers should take appropriate measures to secure their phones.)

John Hering, the CEO of Lookout. says the problem is only getting worse. His December 2009 surveys found there were four pieces of malware for every 100 smartphones; by May 2010 it had jumped to nine. “People need to do their homework,” says

Frank Dickson, VP of research at market-research firm In-Stat. They should read reviews and see who created an application before downloading random files.

And phones should be password-protected, says Hering.