Starting to plan for 2007? You may want to add antivirus software for your users' mobile phones to your to-do list.
"The anti-viral industry sees cell phones as the way to grow sales outside of a flat, commoditised PC market," Pescatore wrote. "However, device-side antiviruses for [mobile] phones will be completely ineffective. The most effective approach to blocking mobile malware will be to block it in the network."
Mobile phone viruses certainly exist -- the first, the SymbOS/Cabir worm, appeared in June 2004 and uses Bluetooth communications to spread between Nokia 60 series phones running the Symbian operating system. However, current low adoption of smart phones, limited use of wireless messaging and low levels of interoperability between mobile operating systems mean there is simply no way they could repeat the pandemics of the Slammer or MSBlaster style attacks that proved so fatal to conventional PCs.
By year's end, Gartner predicts, only 10 percent of customers will have smart phones or PDAs with always-on wireless capabilities. This should grow quickly, particularly as Australia's unquenchable hunger for modern mobiles pushes smart phones into the mainstream. IDC Australia recently noted that shipments of traditional pen-based PDAs had dropped 26 percent in the first quarter of this year, but that smart phones accounted for 89 percent of the total market and were growing at an extremely healthy rate.
HP, Research in Motion (maker of Blackberry handhelds), PalmOne, O2, and Sony Ericsson dominated, each having more than 10 percent of the overall market. Symbian dominated the market with 72 percent share, while Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system had 17 percent, and PalmOS matched proprietary solutions with five percent of the market each. Such a top-heavy market will give hackers two very common targets at which to direct malicious code.
However, the operating system spread changes over time, within a few years it's a safe bet that PDAs, smart phones, or wireless mobile terminals dedicated to specific functions will have taken on significant roles for employees in every part of your business. Just because they may be safe from viruses now does not mean their security and management implications can be ignored. On the contrary, you should take it as a blessing that you have a two-year grace period to implement your mobile solutions and prepare for any coming threat.
I just watched a webcast on managing Windows Mobile at http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msecmobility.aspx. I would guess that mobile phone use will grow quickly in the next decade.