UK Spy chief warns of terrorism threat to Blackberrys and iPhones (he won't even have one)

By Tim Shipman, Deputy Political Editor
Last updated at 11:13 PM on 25th June 2009

Editors Note: It's not that the phones themselves are unsafe, it's the fact that the new phones use web browsers. So, more e-vidence that you might want to think twice about typing your credit/debit card numbers into a smart phone. Guess what? Same goes for typing your credit/debit numbers into a box on a merchant website. Here's a story from the UK"s Mail Online:

Security Minister Lord West has warned that BlackBerrys and iPhones are vulnerable to attack from spies, criminals and terrorists. He said Britain must be alert to the growing threat of cyber attacks on computers and internet-enabled smart phones, which costs the country several billion pounds a year.

Lord West, unveiling the UK's first Cyber Security Strategy yesterday, said: 'With an email, more people see what you have written than if you wrote a postcard.

Security Minister Lord West has revealed that he refuses to have a smartphone because of fears of internet hacking

'When you get a new phone you open yourself up to all the internet issues. Suddenly, people can get access to all sorts of data. We know terrorists use the internet for radicalisation, but there is a fear they will move down that path.

'As their ability to use the web grows, there will be more opportunity for these attacks.'

The initiaitive, which will feature an M15-run Office for Cyber Security to coordinate Government policy, will also see teenage computer hackers drafted in to the GCHQ listening post in Cheltenhamto hunt down cyberterrorists attempting to infiltrate Whitehall computer systems.

Officials refuse to say how many times government computers are targeted, but admit that BT alone faces 1,000 attacks every day.

Lord West has revealed he is personally refusing to use any of the new generation of multi-media phones that are on the market.

Security experts have already warned that some mobile phone owners who use text messages to access bank account details face the risk of having confidential information stolen.

Lord West, who has a Nokia business mobile, said today: It's one reason why I have this Stone Age phone.'He said fashionable smart mobiles are at risk if linked to the internet.

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