Mobile Security
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Hot Mobile News
ITBusinessEdge has published an article that points to a report by Airscanner that claims Windows Mobile software is insecure. The report makes it clear that Windows Mobile is not the culprit but the third party software that is released by developers without proper security handling.
McAfee’s Avert Labs has identified what it calls a new kind of malware targeting mobile phone users through SMS, where consumers receive a text messages attempting to get them to click a URL, which in turn downloads a Trojan horse that allows hackers to control their handset and use it for malicious activities, such as denial of service attacks, installing key logging software and stealing personal account information.
BBProxy, a hacking program, can take advantage of the trust relationship between a BlackBerry and an enterprise’s internal server to hijack network connections.
Travellers who have lost mobile devices such as phones and notebook PCs at British airports face real security risks, warns a new study. Pointsec Mobile Technologies , which offers security software for mobile devices, said its study showed that because many people can’t be bothered to trek to the lost property office at airports, these lost devices are auctioned after three months.
It’s probably better to smash your old mobile phone with a hammer than sell it on the second hand market because it can reveal all your secrets. The problem is that data on phones is relatively easy to resurrect for people who know how.
Mobile Security is perhaps the best example of an oxymoron that you could imagine. Remember that the word oxymoron means a combination of contradictory or incongruous words. That’s the dilemma now facing us. We need our mobile devices wherever we go. But in doing that, we are creating inordinate security problems. The news items to the left that came in this week show the many facets of this problem.
Just think of the steps normally taken from a security point-of-view. If we’re dealing with physical assets such as cash, or gold, or jewellery, or desktop computers, we try to ensure that’s it’s difficult to get into the place where they are used or stored. We may often try to make them stabile. If that’s a new word to you it means immovable: not able or intended to be moved. So you may bolt or chain a desktop computer to a heavy desk with a difficult to remove attachment. The combined weight and the physical bulk is such that no one is going to be moving it in a hurry.
Stabile is the antonym, the complete opposite, of mobile. Research and Development dollars go into making mobile devices smaller and lighter, while packing more and more within them. So they’re getting more valuable as they get easier to move or lose. With mobile devices, the traditional ways of ensuring security, i.e. making assets stabile, are non-runners.
Given the growing problems of identity theft and financial crimes against the person, mobile security must be tackled with solutions that work for human beings. There are some enormous challenges there. One news item this week points the way although undoubtedly at greater cost:
CTIA: Mobile device security standard set
A new set of security standards designed to lock down mobile devices has been hammered out and is set to be unveiled at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show being held in Los Angeles next month. Called the Mobile Security Specification, it’s described as the basis for a new generation of secure phones and mobile devices that will be harder to tamper with and more secure. The standards are backed by companies such as Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and France Telecom.
It’s clear that mobile security solutions can’t happen soon enough. Until they’re in place, we must all continue to exercise great caution in our mobile world.
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