Sprint dons Mobile Armor for security gig
444566
Thick skin for cellco customers Sprint claims it is the first US cellco to deliver end-to-end wireless security for enterprise customers.â¦
281187
InfoWorld - A biometric systems vendor has a pitch for CIOs nervous about company executives losing their mobile phones and risking the loss of confidential information.
126519
(InfoWorld) - It may have taken enterprise customers years to get proper security tools in place to defend their PCs, but if large businesses drag their feet in aligning the applications necessary to protect their smartphones, they will pay a heavy price, says Symantec. As part of a media tour to call attention to the planned launch of its Symantec Mobile Security Suite 5.0 package on June 4 -- touted as its most comprehensive product to date for protecting handheld devices against loss or attack -- experts with the company said hackers and electronic scammers are already creating a mobile environment that will soon rival the dangers of today's PC security landscape. All of the attack profiles that have become standard fare for desktops and laptops, from root kit-like programs that attempt to infect device operating systems, to ingenious social engineering attempts that play on the multimedia footprint of smartphones, have already arrived, said Khoi Nguyen, group product manager for mobile security at Symantec. How quickly the attacks multiply and proliferate will be determined only by the pace with which people adopt more powerful handhelds and how aggressive they are in defending the devices, he said. Unlike in previous years where much of the buzz around wireless security could be attributed to forward thinking, Symantec believes that handheld platforms are about to be deluged by a storm of different types of attacks. "Since the first mobile threats started arriving several years ago things have evolved dramatically, these attacks are real and people are being impacted by them today, particularly in other regions of the world where smartphone use is higher than in the U.S.," Nguyen said. "We are still in the early stages here, but things are evolving much more rapidly than they did on the PC side; as more enterprises adopt smartphones and they are being used more frequently to carry out financial transactions, the attackers will be there waiting." While Symantec estimates that there are still about 450 PC-oriented threats for every attack designed to assail mobile devices, the company expects the gap to close rapidly over the next several years. As new devices and applications that are expected to drive adoption of smartphones hit the market, such as those built to run on Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform, more enterprises will buy the memory-heavy handhelds and hackers will follow, the security expert said. In the last month alone, Symantec has uncovered root-kit style threats attacking Symbian smartphones which attempt to modify the devices' operating system files to bypass onboard security features. The company has also observed so-called snoopware programs, which add voice-driven schemes into the malware mix. One snoopware attack, which had the ability to remotely activate a smartphone's microphone to secretly eavesdrop on calls, take control of its camera to surreptitiously take pictures, and forward all of a user's text messages to another account, was aimed at users of Windows Mobile With an estimated 60-70 percent of the world's smartphones running on Symbian software today, most mobile previously-identified device attacks have targeted the company's OS. In moving to target Windows Mobile users in such a way, hackers illustrate how they are already preparing to cash in on the projected growth of Microsoft's platform, according to Nguyen. "Basically the threats have gone from proof-of-concept to full-blown spyware in a span of three years, whereas it took over a decade for the same type of evolution to occur on the desktop side," said Nguyen. "On the enterprise side, companies are finding that the smartphone is just another endpoint that is going to need to be protected in the same way that desktops and laptops are protected today." As a result of the need for PC-like protection for their handhelds, Symantec is pitching a range of applications in Mobile Security Suite 5.0 that mimic its products for larger computers. Included in the package will be what the company is touting as the first network access control (NAC) system for smartphones, with NAC applications still existing as a fairly new security development in the PC space. Much like a PC-oriented NAC system, the smartphone tools -- which must be used in concert with Symantec's standalone mobile VPN product line -- promise to perform a series of security health checks on devices before the handhelds are allowed to access corporate networks. Another capability unique to the company's latest enterprise smartphone defense package is a tamper-protection feature that monitors devices' operating systems to detect any attempts to modify the code, such as in root kit attacks. As with its Norton consumer smartphone offerings, the Mobile Security Suite 5.0 package will also include more traditional anti-virus and firewall tools as well. Other industry watchers agree that enterprises must have their smartphone security plans firmly in place as they hand out more of the devices to employees. And according to executives at Nokia, the world's top producer of mobile devices, more customers than ever are asking about security implications upfront as they consider wider smartphone distribution. One of the most significant concerns among customers remains the use of unsanctioned devices in the enterprise, typically occurring when workers who have not yet been offered smartphones by their employers instead begin using their own handhelds to carry out business tasks. "A lot of people are still asking us about dealing with unsanctioned devices, the administrators realize that there are often a lot of people using their smartphones in the enterprise without authorization, and they need to find a way to protect themselves," said Kara Hayes, senior product marketing manager for Nokia's Security & Mobility Connectivity group. "People are also very concerned about device loss and theft, they want the ability to wipe the data on the device and kill service," she said. "They want mobile e-mail protection and they're concerned about preventing against data loss; security really has become a big part of the conversation with customers looking to adopt smartphones across more of their organization." Sam Bhavnani, an analyst with Current Analysis, said that organizations should take the best practices they have developed for laptops and port them directly into their smartphone adoption plans. "This all goes back to the migration from desktops to laptops. There are a lot of common sense implications, and people need to be sensible about creating realistic policies that both protect the data on the device and allow users to tap into the potential of the smart phones," Bhavnani said. "Some people are still scared to go there, they know that adopting these devices will open another can of worms, but creating smart policies ahead of time and building on their laptop experience will be the best ways to foster strong mobile security."ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
723648
The company's wireless security technologies are flying off the shelves.
112876
Verizon Communications has no imminent plans to bid for Sprint, people familiar with the situation said Tuesday, lifting a potential obstacle to Sprint&#39;s bid for Nextel Communications.
114268
A security firm lays out this year&#39;s attack timeline to demonstrate the quickening pace of exploits. By Gregg Keizer. Mobile phone security is bad now, but it is only going to get worse, a security firm said
264621
Technology will allow the addition of biometric security to cell phones, PDAs.
140026
Rachel Gonzales hadn&#39;t heard about Sprint&#39;s merger with Nextel when she stopped by a Sprint outlet in downtown San Francisco Wednesday for a new phone.
701756
(InfoWorld) - Uncertainty about how to secure mobile phones in the face of increasing threats is slowing enterprise adoption of mobile applications, experts exhibiting at theÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona this week said. Over two-thirds of mobile operators in Europe that took part in a survey said that they detected more than 100 incidents involvingÂ mobile virusesÂ orÂ mobile spywareÂ in 2006, according to a study by conducted by Informa for security software developer McAfee. The number of European operators reporting more than 1,000 such incidents more than doubled in 2006 compared to the previous year, the report said. IT administrators, uncertain how to protect their users from such attacks, are unwilling to enable mobile access to applications for workers. "Enterprise security professionals haven't really worked this out yet," said Lorcan Burke, CEO of AdaptiveMobile. Companies such as banks, with strict security requirements, simply block access to any service, including Internet access, that could open doors to security issues, he said. At the recent RSA Conference in San Francisco, some of the most crowded events were those tackling mobile security issues, said Simeon Coney, vice president of marketing for AdaptiveMobile. That was an indication that IT administrators are trying to find out how serious mobile security problems are and how to address them, he said. Mobile services can be secured in the application, the network or in hardware or software on the device. Among operators responding to the McAfee study, most found that virus protection was most important at application and device levels, although more of them had deployed network-level security systems than the other options. Over 200 respondents from the operator community took part in the study. AdaptiveMobile makes network-level security products for operators, including a system for filtering viruses in e-mail, SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) traffic. Beyond viruses, AdaptiveMobile can also control content, so it can stop phishing and other fraudulent attacks, or limit the types of content end users can access. If an operator has deployed AdaptiveMobile's platform, an IT administrator in a company can set and manage such controls down to the level of individual users. For the mass market, AdaptiveMobile's product allows operators to notify a user by text message if their phone becomes infected with a virus and offer a download, either for free or for a fee, to disinfect the device. Without such software, operators will replace a user's device or ask them to send it off for disinfection, both costly propositions. A network-based security mechanism offers some advantages over anti-virus software that sits on the handset, Burke said. Handset software doesn't prevent phishing and other nonviral scams. In addition, anti-virus software isn't compatible with all phones, making it logistically difficult for the software developers to tweak their products for each version of every phone and make sure to sell the proper software to end users. He calls anti-virus software on the handset "the minimum acceptable response. It's a tick in the box to make people feel comfortable." Some developers also sell security mechanisms that sit in the phone's hardware. Such solutions are ideal for organizations with very strict security requirements, such as government users, Burke said. One downside to the hardware-based solutions is that they take about two years to make it into a handset, he noted.
99610
Blog: This ambitious suite will go beyond basic antivirus and firewall protection for your mobile device.
168153
Overland Park, 15.10.04 - Sprint Corporation announced it will record in its third quarter financial results a pre-tax non-cash impairment charge reducing the value of its long-distance network assets.
441961
Sprint Corp. (FON.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Friday said it plans to cut up to 700 jobs as it realigns its business to focus on wireless and Internet services and takes a non-cash network impairment charge.
151163
Sprint Corp. FON.N on Friday said it  plans to cut up to 700 jobs as it realigns its business to  focus on wireless and Internet services and takes a non-cash  network impairment charge.
634899
Sprint Nextel has decided to consolidate its two headquarters, eliminating a relic of the merger of Sprint and Nextel Communications in 2005.
197140
Upcoming smart phone will feature a mobile version of F-Secure's antivirus software.
356485
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. Sprint plans to cut 700 jobs in its business solutions division. It will also take a charge against earnings in its third quarter to reflect a decline in value of its long-distance assets.
68846
Sprint named Dan Hesse, the chief executive of the wireline company Embarq, to the post, effective immediately. He will replace Gary Forsee, who was ousted in October.