Networks on guard

As the volume of mobile phones on the planet grows and far exceeds the number of PCs, more spammers, spoofers and virus-developers are directing their efforts at the cellular platform. Dublin-headquartered Adaptive Mobile is a company working with operators to safeguard their networks and reputations. Vice president of sales and general manager of the company’s Middle East division, Graeme Baker shares how mobile security is shaping consumers’ expectations and how it will help drive future revenues

Mobile viruses in the Middle East have made headlines in recent years with programmes such as ‘Comwarrior B’ and ‘the Guardian’ infecting thousands of handsets. Unlike PC viruses that can be prevented through software loaded on individual computers, the sheer volume of handsets makes software protection at a handset level ineffective. If one also takes into consideration the different technologies and operating software utilised in mobile devises and how quickly they are upgraded, the scope of the problem becomes even more apparent.

“Viruses are being found on the network that create artificial traffic, says Adaptive Mobile’s Graeme Baker. “You have spammers that effectively spoof other people’s SMS and MMS and present traffic to a network that is not real. It may be that an operator in the Middle East believes it is receiving millions of SMS from a prominent operator in the UK, but it may be traffic that is being spoofed somewhere else in another part of the world,” he adds.

This becomes a problem when the two companies come to reconcile their numbers and find that one network has been loaded up with traffic that it cannot reconcile revenue against. All this negatively impacts the customer business case with operator forecasts exceeded by traffic that is non-revenue generating.

“It’s the equivalent of owning a fleet of trains running at full capacity, but letting everybody travel for free. If there are no fares coming through the box office, then the business is not making money,” Baker states.

The onus is not only on the operator to safeguard its network, but also to provide a level of control to subscribers as expectations of consumers rise. Baker says that just as parents expect to have control over the type of content or websites that are delivered through cable television or the Internet to their children, parents also expect to have an option to control the type of messages their children receive on their mobile phones, who is able to communicate with them, and at what times of the day. Enterprise clients also expect to have certain control over the types of websites their staff may view during working hours.

As the mobile telecoms industry looks towards the next generation of revenues, Baker suggests that in order for individual subscribers as well as corporate clients to feel comfortable with purchasing additional network services and value added services, they will need to trust their networks and be able to manage their communications within a secure environment.

“A classic example is 3G data cards. A company may think it is a great idea to enhance its staff mobility and efficiency, and issue data cards throughout the company. But, when the first set of bills come in, the CFO may view it as being very expensive. Typically there is a massive peak of take-up for such services, which is then throttled back, because the company does not perceive that there is control over this asset outside of the firewall. However, there are several layers of control that organisations can take to manage this.”