Smartphones can be easily infected with 'rootkits' that enable a variety of direct and indirect crime-related activities. Controlling a user's smartphone, enables activities such as eavesdrop on meetings, track the owners travels and flatten the battery, and act as an attack vector via automated activity .
Rutgers Uni has provided a review. For more details see http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2010/02/rutgers-researchers-20100222
The security problems are potentially more severe with smartphones than computers because of their higher numbers of communication pathways.
DOCRC opportunities to resist or resolve this are in protection (via electronically target hardening smartphones via firewalls, malware blockers etc), reverse attack (e.g. via attacker identification) and as a parallel ongoing measure, by increased situational awareness by the user of strange phone behaviours.
