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    Mobile Security: A Pocket Guide
    Mobile Security: A Pocket Guide
    Mobile Security: A Pocket Guide
    Ebook82 pages34 minutes

    Mobile Security: A Pocket Guide

    By Steve Furnell

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    About this ebook

    This pocket guide gives you clear and reliable guidance on how to protect the information contained in your mobile phone. Written by one of the country’s top academic experts on information security, the guide covers such topics as safeguarding data through encryption, establishing a virtual private network (VPN) to create a secure way for your staff to connect to the server on a remote device, and countering the growing threat on mobile platforms of SMS-phishing and malware. Rather than trying to ban the Blackberry, the solution proposed is for organisations to factor mobile devices into their overall information security policy.

    LanguageEnglish
    Publisheritgovernance
    Release dateJul 16, 2009
    ISBN9781849281225
    Mobile Security: A Pocket Guide
    Author

    Steve Furnell

    Professor Steven Furnell is the head of the Centre for Information Security & Network Research at the University of Plymouth. He has been active in security-related research since 1992, and his interests include computer crime, user authentication and security usability. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Information Management & Computer Security, a Fellow and Branch Chair of the British Computer Society (BCS), and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

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      Book preview

      Mobile Security - Steve Furnell

      978-1-84928-122-5

      PREFACE

      Mobile devices represent an increasingly important proportion of the technology market, with laptops, PDAs and smartphones all offering substantial opportunities to improve personal communications and business flexibility. In addition, removable storage, such as memory sticks, now enables enormous quantities of data to be carried around, making it available to use on demand in any location. However, such undoubted advantages can also bring considerable risks, with devices being physically vulnerable to loss, theft and damage, as well as potentially exposed to various forms of electronic attack. As such, there is a significant and growing need for protection, in order to enable us to get the best out of the kit in an otherwise dangerous digital world.

      The book provides a concise reference to the key security issues affecting those that deploy and use mobile technologies to support their organisations. It aims to raise awareness of the threats to which mobile devices, users and data are exposed, as well as to provide advice on how to address the problems.

      The key themes tackled in the chapters are as follows:

      • the importance of mobile technologies

      • physical threats in the outside world

      • dealing with network connectivity

      • authenticating the user

      • other mechanisms for protecting mobile data

      • attacks facing mobile devices and users

      • the potential limitations of mobile security features.

      The content is essentially applicable to anyone using and deploying mobile devices, but particularly relevant to those wanting guidance on why protection is required and what should be done to achieve it (while at the same time noting that it is not a detailed how-to guide for any particular technology platform). In addition to the main discussion and evidence, each chapter concludes with a series of ‘takeaways’ that summarise the key messages, and can be used as high-level reminders of the points that we need to remember.

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Prof. Steven Furnell is the head of the Centre for Information Security & Network Research at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom, and an Adjunct Professor with Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. He has been active in security-related research since 1992, with interests including security management, computer crime, user authentication and security usability.

      During his academic career to date, Prof. Furnell has authored over 190 papers in refereed international journals and conference proceedings, as well as a number of books including Cybercrime: Vandalizing the Information Society (Addison Wesley, 2001) and Computer Insecurity: Risking the System (Springer, 2005). He is also the editor-in-chief of Information Management & Computer Security, and an associate editor for other journals including Computers & Security and Security & Communication Networks. In addition, he is the co-chair of the Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance (HAISA) symposium, and he has served as a programme committee member for over 120 other international conference events.

      Prof. Furnell is a Fellow and Branch Chair of the British Computer Society (BCS) and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is also active as a UK representative in International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) working groups relating to Information Security Management (of which he is the current chair) and Information Security Education.

      Further details can be found at www.plymouth.ac.uk/cisnr.

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      Thanks are due to Dr Nathan Clarke for his helpful feedback on the draft version of the manuscript, as well as for his contribution to some of the underlying work referenced in the guide. Thanks are also due to Sevasti Karatzouni and Reinhardt Botha for their valued collaboration on some of the related research.

      CONTENTS

      CHAPTER 1:

      GETTING MOBILE

      As an introduction to the topic area, this chapter identifies the range and increasing capabilities of mobile devices, including laptops/notebooks, PDAs, mobile phones, media players and removable storage. The discussion emphasises that while mobility is an undoubted asset to the business, it does serve to open up a new range of risks through both the technology and the ways it is used. This will set the scene for the more focused chapters that follow.

      Mobile technology has transformed the nature of our personal and business lives, with laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and mobile phones all having made the transition from being high-end executive items to everyday technologies in the mass market. As just one example, by 2005 mobile phones had already reached 80% penetration across the OECD area, with 14 countries having exceeded 100% (i.e. having more active mobile accounts than their total population).¹ Not only do more people have them, they can also do more with

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