Short Message Service (sms) security solution for mobile devices

 

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D. 
MOBILE DEVICE SECURITY 
As the SMS message arrives at the mobile device, it is subjected to 
another set of threats. This Section highlights some of the threats and risks in a 
mobile device. 
1. Physical 
Security 
One of the biggest threats for cell phones and mobile devices is physical 
theft or loss due to their high value and small size. In an independent survey 
conducted by The Ponemon Institute in August 2006, 81% of the surveyed 
companies experienced one or more lost or missing laptop computers containing 
sensitive or confidential business information in the past 12 month period [23]. A 
recent data breach involved the loss of a United States Veteran’s Administration 
(VA) employee’s laptop computer containing the names and Social Security 
numbers of almost 27 million living veterans. The laptop was stolen from the 
employee’s home office. As cell phones become more portable and powerful in 
terms of processing power and memory storage capacity, it can be expected they 
will be subjected to the same types of threats and losses as laptops today.
2. Security 
Features 
Mobile devices are also restricted by their input devices. Small keypads 
or touch panels are used to reduce the overall size of the device. Security 
mechanisms such as password protection may be implemented. However, the 
input of the passwords is not as efficient compared to a desktop computer. The 
choice of password is often reduced to numbers for the purpose of convenience. 
This severely reduces the password space that an attacker needs to go through 
in a brute force attack. The use of a complex password, comprising upper and 
lower case alphabets and special characters, will affect the usability severely on 
a mobile device. That is why many access control mechanisms are reduced to a 
Personal Identification Number (PIN) on mobile phone devices. 

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