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It’s not quite “Global Thermonuclear War” – the “game” that got Matthew Broderick into so much trouble, and nearly killed all of us, in 1983’s cold war-era classic “War Games.”

 

Back then, it was fun to imagine a computer geek like Broderick’s character hacking into his high school’s system and changing his own grades as well as his friends.

 

Yet hacking into computers has produced an entire industry of spyware and anti-virus, protective software today. The industry grew with the proliferation of desktop and laptop computers.

 

Now, experts say, the rapid spread of cell phones and smart phones is presenting a new, serious threat that could compromise users’ privacy and the security of passwords for e-mail and even bank accounts.

 

“Right now, we’re at a real interesting point, and kind of a troubling point if you think about it,” Daniel V. Hoffman (News - Alert), a mobile security expert who works as chief technical officer at SMobile Systems, told TMCNet during an interview. “Everybody has some kind of device, what we’re holding now is more powerful than laptops were seven, eight years ago. There are not a tremendous amount of threats that are publicly known. We haven’t been a big event, like the ‘I love you’ or ‘Melissa’ virus, that everyone talks about. The reason for that is that these hackers don’t want to be loud.”

 

SMobile is a Columbus, Ohio-based company that develops security solutions for all mobile device platforms.

 

Hoffman says the company’s software products are unique in that they serve smaller businesses, whose workers may keep privileged information and carry out critical, private communications through devices such as smart phones.

 

An effective solution for SMBs looking for mobile security must encompass anti-virus, personal firewall and encryption features, Hoffman said. That’s a rare combination on today’s market, he said – even the hugely popular, much-hyped Apple (News - Alert) iPhone 2.0 lacks that level of security, Hoffman said. He added that SMobile is developing the mobile security for the new 3G iPhone – as well as for Google’s (News - Alert) widely anticipated Android mobile platform – and that those products likely will be available later this year.

 

Mobile hacking made headlines in a venerable U.S. newspaper recently, when Wall Street Journal reporter Roger Cheng reported on a “new breed of hackers” who use spyware to watch what people type into their mobile devices and even steal company secrets.

 

“For big companies with watchful IT staffs, these threats are much easier to handle,” Cheng writes. “But small businesses often lack the resources to put up firewalls or pay for expensive security software for individual phones. In many cases, they are simply unaware of the threats.”

 

Today, companies such as SMobile are targeting the needs of SMBs, with relatively inexpensive mobile software “that encrypts e-mail traffic, or monitors phones for suspicious activity,” Cheng writes.

 

According to Hoffman, government agencies often are targeted by mobile hackers – though every person who carries a mobile device is susceptible to an attack. Mobile Internet users who do banking online, for example, may be susceptible to hackers who record their touch pad key strokes and so obtain password information. A mobile device with GPS functionality could lead a hacker to locate the device’s owner.

 

Some of what Hoffman says mobile hackers can do is fascinating. For example, if someone has a mobile device in his sports coat pocket, a hacker could turn that device on and, from wherever he is, listen to a conversation that the person is having by homing in on ambient sounds.

 

“The hacking threats are considerable,” Hoffman told TMCNet. “There is software out there that can find hackers and protect people, but most devices out there have no security software on them at all.”