Mobile Security Service
via: Mobile Marketing Magazine
Jay Seaton, Chief Marketing Officer at mobile messaging company, Airwide Solutions, argues that operators are best positioned to protect their subscribers against mobile phone hacks and attacks
Later today at the Black Hat Cybersecurity Conference in Las Vegas, researchers will demonstrate how they can potentially, in their own words, “hijack every iPhone in the World” and hack virtually any other Smartphone, using falsified SMS and MMS messages. How to safeguard against such attacks should be a topic for serious debate. At Airwide, we believe the most effective solutions to combat attacks of this nature are those deployed by mobile operators.
The data being carried by Smartphones is increasingly making them more valuable than many computers, and this is putting Smartphones hugely at risk to security threats. SMS and MMS messages are the easiest way for hackers to reach and infiltrate a device, and it falls to operators to employ mobile security solutions to protect their customers from this danger.
Many people assume that the PC security model of software downloads and firewalls is the answer. With the variety of handsets available, however, this isn’t an effective option on its own. Adding to the complexity is the range of communication methods that can be carried out on a Smartphone, such as email, SMS, MMS, web and WAP access. Along with these comes a whole host of mobile security threats, such as mobile spam, viruses and phishing.
Handset-based solutions are also limited, as they only protect a tiny number of mobile users. Also, with mobile devices constantly being upgraded and replaced with higher specification devices, security software which is added is often quickly outdated.
read full article here.
