Fears grow for mobile security

Security will become a growing consideration as companies increase their investment in mobile technologies.

The latest IBM Global Business Security Index Report predicts a surge in viruses targeting mobiles and PDAs this year.

'Mobile devices are the new frontier for viruses, spam and other potential security threats,' says the report.

Last week the Cabir mobile phone virus spread to the US, with an infected handset discovered for sale in a Californian shop.

Cabir drains mobile phone batteries and is spread between handsets via Bluetooth. Fifteen variations have been found in 12 countries since last August.

Experts at the 3GSM World Congress last month said the industry needs to build confidence in its ability to control the spread of viruses and malware.

Daniel Taylor, managing director of the Mobile Enterprise Alliance user group, says a basic measure that may persuade large companies that the industry is serious about security would be to provide phones without cameras.

'Although you'd think this would be a simple request, it is a hot enterprise topic at the moment,' he says. 'Most companies won't let cameras anywhere near their business.'

And John Starkweather, mobile and embedded devices group senior product manager at Microsoft, says: 'As an industry, it's critical we rally together to educate users and ensure that devices are proactive in defending themselves.'

Microsoft has two ways of ensuring security: certification of devices, and security management features written into the operating system.

'As Windows CE was built for small devices it's completely different to the desktop operating system,' says Starkweather. 'It's not technically viable for the desktop to infect devices.'

He says the best way of securing a lost or stolen device would be the ability to remove all data from it remotely.

Sun Microsystems is taking an open-source approach to its Java-based security plans.

'Java is designed to be a distributed architecture, and having code available on the web allows the community to find problems much earlier,' says Eric Chu, mobile and embedded devices senior director at Sun.

He says the company has built similar fail-safe measures as its rivals, to prevent malicious applications from accessing memory - even those that evade certification checks.

But research carried out by analyst Quocirca on behalf of Telewest suggests that European business are not yet put off by security fears. One in three mobile technology buyers say they plan to increase spending by 20 per cent or more.

Mobile spending in the UK will outstrip other IT spending by eight times, according to the survey.

Sun's chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz says the industry has been through similar debates before.

'The IT directors who view accessibility as a threat are the same as those who were afraid of the internet,' he says.