The netBook, new targets for hackers?

Translated from French to English
Source
Les netbooks , nouvelles cibles pour les pirates informatiques? http://bit.ly/EIIEz


The netBook, new targets for hackers?
Reuters | 03.03.2009 | 12:33

By Kelvin Soh

TAIPEI (Reuters) - If the flood of netBook has helped millions of people to acquire a computer, the savings on the safety of these mini-PC at low price make them ideal prey for hackers.

Since their introduction in the market for less than two years by the Taiwanese Asustek, almost all the major PC manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer and Lenovo, have followed suit.

In the view of analysts, all the ingredients together to make the perfect target netBook viruses and hackers, they are simple, low power and their users often neophytes.

"Internet is full of dangers, whatever computer you use," said Saturday Yen, head of marketing for the antivirus software company Symantec.

"But keeping in mind that the NETBOOK is primarily used for surfing the Internet, the dangers are multiplied, especially if the computer is not protected by antivirus software."

Especially with a price that can call down to $ 300, these ultra-portable computers do not usually s'encombrent standards such as firewalls or other security software ships pre-installed on computers.

"Frankly, the security on the netBook is not it," said Pranab Sarmah, an analyst at the Daiwa Research Institute.

"The positioning of NETBOOK is that manufacturers will make every effort to continue to offer attractive prices for consumers, which means keeping costs down."

Many users netBook are newcomers on the internet and can not be fully informed about taking precautions to protect themselves. In addition, more sophisticated users may be tempted to shut down security programs to overcome the low power of the computer.

Sales growth at risk?

NetBook sales could more than double in 2009 and reach 21 million units, according to forecasts of firm IDC, which provides a modest growth of 4% of total PC sales to 305 million units.

Some scholars suggest that the inability of netBook to provide effective protection could hinder the growth of the segment, by discouraging customers accustomed to working with sensitive data. Business customers now represents more than half of total sales of computers.

"Most companies will continue to opt for portable computers capable of hosting traditional security software performance," said Eric Ashdown, director of security and risk at Accenture.

NETBOOK but is primarily intended for a casual user who does not store sensitive information on your computer, use that could provide him with better security, "said Ashdown. "Most attacks are aimed at computers with data, to data that have an economic value," said Ashdown.

"If I were a hacker, I'm not sure I'm interested in netBook. What I could find? Family photos".