Mobile Market Overview

Today’s mobile phone has evolved into a fully functional multimedia device capable of mobile TV, email, making payments, playing music and video and much more.

Universal mobile data access, combined with increased computing capacity, continues to enable a wider range of corporate and consumer applications.

Smartphones such as the Blackberry and Palm Treo are now commonplace, serving as combination phone/PDA with performance capability comparable to that of laptops.

According to IDC, integrating compressed audio support will be a priority for handset vendors between 2007 and 2010, with support for music progressively extending from high-end and midrange handsets to lower end handsets in the later years.

Global spending on music for handsets is forecast to reach $13.7 billion in 2007 according to Gartner, while surveys indicate that users want their phones to be their primary music players.

As mobility extends into more and more applications, so does the need to provide a security solution that addresses the increased data rates and provides a fully transparent user experience. It must also be robust enough to support content distribution, financial and mission critical enterprise applications, while conforming to the price, power consumption and performance requirements of the consumer electronics industry.

Threats

The increased use of mobile data also exposes the device and the network to a wide range of threats, such as viruses, denial of service, spam and fraud. Only a hardware-based security solution integrated at the device level can address these issues, as well as handset theft.

Smartphones running on open operating systems, such as Linux, Windows Mobile and Symbian, are vulnerable to a new generation of threats. They require anti-theft, DRM and secure storage, in addition to a Secure Execution Environment (SEE) aimed at ensuing that third party applications downloaded by the subscriber cannot damage the device’s core functionality.

These threats necessitate adopting an all-inclusive view of security and deploying protection measures across the entire wireless value chain - from component manufacturers through to the network operator. Corporate and/or individual subscribers play an important role in functionality and user experience, while network operators play a central role in defining and implementing security standards. Security must be integrated at the very foundation of the device, in a manner that meets mobile operators’ stringent requirements and ensures a transparent user experience.

Mobile Security – A Moving Target

Due to the constant emergence of new schemes, challenges and threats, wireless security is always evolving and developing in new directions. Compounding this complexity is the host of different operating systems, chipsets and platforms used in today’s mobile devices, making integration intricate and costly. These concerns must be addressed using a highly secure hardware layer that implements industry standard algorithms and performs the computationally intensive cryptography. The software based protocol and application layers provide the functionality and flexibility needed to address current and evolving needs.

Typical Mobile Applications Enabled by Robust Security

Secure Storage: The large quantities of data (personal, corporate or proprietary third party) stored on today’s mobile devices require protection against unauthorized access, usage and distribution. In order to address these risks, sensitive data must be stored in a manner that is secure, robust and transparent to the end-user. For example, secure storage enables a broad range of enterprise applications which require an intricate set of access control rules for different entities.

Content Protection: The enhanced functionality of today’s devices has allowed manufacturers to realize the vision of a single device that serves as both a phone and an entertainment console. The music, gaming and TV broadcasting sectors are anxious to access this market, however only with the proper safeguards in place. Content protection is a key building block in this vision and a robust high performance security solution is the foundation upon which content protection must stand in order to succeed.

Enterprise Applications: Much has been said about the benefits of “mobilizing the enterprise” and the efficiencies that it would bring to applications such as Sales Force Automation, Supply Chain Management and Enterprise Resource Planning. Security is a fundamental element in this vision; indeed security is constantly ranked as the number one concern of CIOs in extending access to wireless devices.