Cyber-criminals are targeting phones and bank info

As recent high-profile attacks at major companies like Facebook and Apple, major publications like the New York Times and Washington Post and the U.S. government itself have made clear, cyber-crime is a very real and growing concern for everyone.

The latest threat report from security firm McAfee highlights the need for vigilance on mobile devices and a change in how people and companies approach security.

Smartphones and tablets are increasingly hot targets for cyber-criminals, and the volume of mobile threats is growing much faster than it did for PCs. The amount of malware detected by McAfee on the devices in 2012 was 44 times what it was the previous year.

The company estimates that 95% of all mobile malware ever devised has been created in the past year alone, and the vast majority of that is made for the Android operating system.

But McAfee's worldwide chief technology officer, Mike Fey, warns against looking at the the number of threats targeting Android and assuming that other platforms are safer. Criminals are targeting the operating system partially because it is so open, and also because they tend to focus on the platform they think will be around the longest.

What makes these portable devices such juicy targets for criminals is that they are rife with personal and financial information. For example, many phones have banking features baked in, and criminals can use "Trojan horse" viruses to milk them dry using SMS services that charge per text.

Read more: Cyber-criminals are targeting phones and bank info - CNN.com