Trusted Mobile Services
for All?

New security for mobile services

Sales figures for smartphones are skyrocketing and these mobile all-rounders are dominating the global marketplace like never before. Yet, there is a significant stumbling block on the road to success: security concerns.

Mass circulation boosts cyber crime

In the third quarter of 2010 alone, approximately 81 million smartphones were sold – a 95 percent increase on the same period of the previous year. The huge market for private and professional applications makes these devices particularly attractive. The paradox is that it is precisely this development into a mass product that poses a threat to the future acceptance of mobile services. Why? Because not only has the application range dramatically expanded, so too has the potential for misuse of the data and information that the devices receive, store, and send.

Mobile banking is a prime example of this. The possibility of handling bank transactions via mobile devices has also developed into a highly interesting market for hackers and criminals. Cyber attacks on smartphone data and applications are not yet a mass phenomenon, but they demonstrate that misuse of data is not just possible, but already a real problem.

Effective protection through isolation

The current boom in mobile communication devices undeniably requires a corresponding paradigm shift in their security features. Here, a promising trend is emerging: the principle of processing security-sensitive data in an entirely isolated and secured environment on the devices. The key advantage is that users retain full flexibility to deploy new applications and data on their smartphones at any time – keeping this category of devices attractive and cost-efficient.