In security circles, the talk on mobile centers around mobile management, protecting access to and use of corporate information by smartphone users. This summer’s iOS 4 has been a game-changer for most IT organizations, giving the Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch security capabilities equivalent to those of Windows Mobile and meeting the needs of most BlackBerry users, ending the main objection at many companies for allowing iOS devices in.
Researchers at Russian security company Kaspersky Lab say they’ve discovered the first malware program to target Google’s Android mobile operating system.
And you thought those iPhone 4 signal problems were bad — at last week’s Black Hat conference, a San Francisco firm called Lookout Mobile Security revealed that third-party smartphone apps are stealing user information and (literally) phoning home with it. And by “home,” I mean China.
Once thought to be unhackable, the Android phone is anything but, according to researchers presenting at Black Hat 2010.
As Google and its carriers begin to make the Android 2.2 OS (aka Froyo) available to the slew of devices from Motorola, HTC, LG, and so on, one repeatedly trumpeted claim is that it has better Microsoft Exchange support, making it usable in many businesses that heretofore would have blocked it.
This support, Android fan boys say, mean that Google’s mobile OS is finally ready to take on the iPhone and even BlackBerry in the corporate world.
No such luck.
Google’s Android platform, like the Apple iPhone before it, has been a hit with consumers but has only been recently gotten serious about adding enterprise features.
The official launch this week of the Android 2.2 (a.k.a., “Froyo”) platform has been Google’s most significant step toward making Android enterprise-friendly yet, however.
Twenty percent of applications on Android Market let third parties access private or sensitive information, according to a report from security vendor SMobile Systems.
It used to be a luxury to own a smartphone. Now everyone seems to have one, and can’t seem to do their jobs without it.
Hoping to understand what a new generation of mobile malware could resemble, security researchers will demonstrate a malicious “rootkit” program they’ve written for Google’s Android phone next month at the Defcon hacking conference in Las Vegas.
Resistance is futile: The iPhone has won. Try as you may to maintain the great corporate barrier against employees using the latest smartphones on your network, the iPhone has or will soon enter your business and connect to your IT systems, and Google’s Android devices such as the Droid series are not far behind.
Resistance is futile: The iPhone has won. Try as you may to maintain the great corporate barrier against employees using the latest smartphones on your network, the iPhone has or will soon enter your business and connect to your IT systems, and Google’s Android devices such as the Droid series are not far behind.
