Celltrust targets banks with encrypted SMS app
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Celltrust developed its SecureSMS application so banks could deliver secure text messages to their customers&#39; mobile phones -- but the company&#39;s chief technology officer wonders whether French president Nicolas Sarkozy might like a copy of the software.Sarkozy sued a French magazine on Thursday for publishing a message it alleged he had sent by SMS (Short Message Service) to his ex-wife just days before his marriage to singer Carla Bruni earlier this month. The president accused the magazine of falsification, use of false documents and possession of stolen goods.If a text message is sent using SecureSMS then even if the phone is stolen, the secured messages on it cannot be read, Celltrust CTO Houman Shafiezadeh said at a press event in Barcelona, on the eve of the Mobile World Congress.That&#39;s because SecureSMS encrypts messages before transmission using a key unique to the sender, decodes them at a secure gateway and reencrypts using another key for delivery. A special application on the sender&#39;s and the recipient&#39;s phones stores the encrypted message, and will only decrypt and display it if the appropriate password is provided.SecureSMS can encrypt messages sent between two cell phones as long as both subscribers have set up accounts with Celltrust, Shafiezadeh said.Celltrust&#39;s target market, though, is big business: it hopes that banks will use its gateway and application software to secure the messages they send out to customers. The software has other advantages for banks: it provides confirmation of the reception and opening of secured messages, showing that whoever holds the phone also has the password.These confirmations, however, are sent by SMS and paid for by the phone subscriber. That makes the application more suitable for customers on tariffs allowing unlimited text messages.&quot;If you&#39;re paying 10 cents a message, I wouldn&#39;t recommend it,&quot; Shafiezadeh said.Celltrust is in talks with a number of U.S. banks to roll out the software in trials, he said. Finding enough customers with the right kinds of account, phone and SMS tariff is slowing things down, he said. Once the banks have identified the customers, the company will invite them to download the application, so that it can fine-tune the delivery process. The trials should begin in March, with a commercial service up and running by September, he said.The SecureSMS software is initially available as a J2EE applet for phones capable of running Java applications. Other versions, for Microsoft&#39;s Windows Mobile and for Qualcomm&#39;s Brew platform, will soon be ready.After that, Shafiezadeh said, it will be a race between Celltrust coders producing versions for Google&#39;s Android platform -- for which there is an SDK (software development kit) but no phones -- and for Apple&#39;s iPhone, on the market for almost eight months but with no official SDK available yet. That&#39;s frustrating for Shafiezadeh because Celltrust has issued its employees with iPhones.Other companies offer secure SMS tools, but for more limited ranges of handsets. Kryptext, in Brighton, England, offers an application by the same name that works only on phones running Symbian OS, while Finnish handset maker Benefon (now GeoSentric) offered handsets that could send encrypted text messages back in 2003.The Mobile World Congress, at the Fira de Barcelona, runs through Thursday.
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Google has launched a search service for mobile devices, based on the SMS (short messaging service) protocol. Users can perform searches for phone numbers, dictionary definitions and product
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A tool that could help in the battle against spam and phishing attacks receives industry approval.
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Loading a malicious web page can give hackers access to contact information, call history and SMS text messages stored on your gadget, a security company says.
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Text messaging users can use Google SMS to get specific search information such as prices, definitions, area codes, ZIP codes and phone listings.
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Blog: New suite of smart phone protection includes antispam for SMS and data encryption.
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Lexar's JumpDrive TouchGuard uses a sensor that reads the ridges on a finger and unlocks encrypted data if there's a match.
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Follow that screaming hoodie A new weapon in the battle against mobile mugging and data theft hits the streets today. The people behind Remote XT software claim backing from the rozzers, in the form of the Met and the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.â¦
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Common sense is still the key for San Francisco's new SMS eemergency alerts.
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Grisoft has launched the AVG Mobile Security suite for mobile phones, now available as a free beta.
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Bank of America Corp. customers can now use their mobile phones to make online banking more secure.
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IBM is using a microcontroller from National Semiconductor that stores passwords, digital certificates and encryption keys.
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(InfoWorld) - A new set of security standards designed to lock down mobile devicesÂ has been hammered outÂ and is set to be unveiled at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment show being held in Los Angeles next month. Called the Mobile Security Specification, it is billed 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. The specification has been years in development, said Janne Uusilehto, head of Nokia product security and the chairman of the working group developing this technology. "It is a big deal. This is the first time that we have created such common security specifications for all handheld devices," Uusilehto said. The new specifications are built on work done by the Trusted Computing Group, (TCG) an industry association that has already created similar standards for PCs, servers and networks. Uusilehto's Mobile Phone Work Group expects to announce the specification on Sept. 13 at the CTIA show, provided that the remaining minor details can be worked out. The specification will beÂ published here. Â The Nokia executive declined to say when his company or others will be producing phones that comply with the new specification, but he predicted that manufacturers would soon begin using the technology to lock down basic parts of their devices, such as the operating system. When these devices appear, they will make things more difficult for data thieves and mobile virus writers. Down the line, the technology could be used to build electronic wallets into mobile phones. In general terms, the specification calls on hardware vendors to store protected information in a secure area of the phones. Similar to the Trusted Platform Module used in PCs, this technology could be used to ensure that the phone's operating system, applications and data have not been tampered with. This type of trusted module could also be used by network operators to ensure that the phones on their network can't be used if they are stolen, said Mark Redman, a principal engineer with Freescale Semiconductor Inc. who is familiar with the specification. "That is probably one of the biggest concerns that the cell phone operators have at this stage," he said. Though some companies may be early adopters of the Mobile Security Specification, it could take years before cell phone users reap any benefits, said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates who serves as on the TCG's advisory council. "What typically will happen is that there may be some early adopters who start adhering to the specification before it's fully accepted," he said, adding that "just because [the Trusted Computing Group standard] promulgates, it doesn't mean that it's going to be adopted." Even after years of development, there is still debate about whether trusted modules are the right approach for the PC industry, he said. "The most interesting, most advanced features are going to take years, because everybody has to agree to adhere to the new standard."
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Here's how nontechnical users can secure their own instant-messaging conversations such that an attacker is unable to listen in (be it the government or a nosy neighbor).
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Check Point and McAfee unveil products designed to help companies protect their networks.
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With an eye towards making mobile devices and the commerce services that run over them more secure, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. on Wednesday published a jointly developed security specification called the Trusted Mobile Platform.
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Putting some truth to the rampant rumours that Google was getting into the instant messaging business, the company has announced the beta test release of Google SMS, the mobile phone equivalent of IM.