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Best practices for protecting handhelds from mobile malware by Deepa Sawant, Project Manager, Motorola

Best practices for protecting handhelds from mobile malware

By : Deepa Sawant, Project Manager, Motorola
Industry : Communications and Networking Functional Area : Application Software
Keywords :

Mobile

Best Practices

C

MALWARE

Protecting

HANDHELDS

MALWARE For Mobile

Mobile HANDHELDS

Protecting HANDHELDS

Activity:  1 comments  118 views  last activity : 07 06 2010 20:18:04 +0000
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The "nest big security threat" is mobile softwares and application, so let me take you through few best practices i came across to protect handheld from malware.

  • Make sure all host systems that your users are syncing their devices to are protected with current antivirus software. In many cases, the desktop system can catch infected applications before they are installed on the mobile device.

  • If your users are not using Bluetooth on their phones, PDAs, luxury automobiles or other gadgets, have them disable the feature altogether. In addition to closing the door on some types of malware and unwanted advertising, this will improve battery life on the device.

  • If your users simply cannot live without their Bluetooth accessories, make sure that at the very least, their phone/PDA/etc. is not set to be discoverable. While this is not a guarantee that a skilled attacker will not see the device given time and motivation, it will provide some defense against attackers of opportunity. A better practice is to instruct users to activate Bluetooth when they need it and turn it off when not in use.

  • While it may seem a bit obvious, we infosec types need to educate our users that, just as they should not click on every attachment sent to their PC e-mail inbox, they should view unsolicited messages and software on PDAs and phones with suspicion. The malware released to date for phones and PDAs requires help from the victim in order to spread. No help, no virus.

  • Information kept on phones and PDAs should exist somewhere else as well. Malware is one threat to mobile devices, but there are many others: theft, loss, damage to name a few. No matter which of these results in data loss, having a backup will make recovery easier.

 

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1 comments on "Best practices for protecting handhelds from mobile malware"
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  Commented by  Amit Ganguly, Project Lead, CISCO    | 04 23 2008 23:53:59 +0000 
But the virus writers for mobile are not as smart as smart phones, i can quote an instance of a mobile virus which propagates to devices whose bluetooth is on, but it also drained battery of the host device very fast, limitin its own spread!!
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