Mobile Device Security Impacts Adoption of New Services

By Stephanie Jordan
in

A Harris Interactive survey of more than 1,800 adult mobile device users was recently conducted to measure concerns about security, as well as the impact such concerns might have on the adoption of new mobile services and applications. The consumer survey, commissioned by Cloudmark, Inc., a provider of carrier-grade messaging security, found that nearly two thirds of mobile device owners are concerned about the security of their devices. The study also points out that these concerns are preventing many users from adopting new mobile services for financial transactions and shopping.

In a statement, Cloudmark said the survey revealed:

  • 65 percent of all mobile device owners expressed concerns about the security of their device.
  • Nearly half (46 percent) of these concerned device owners said that their worries about security prevented them from conducting activities on their mobile device.
  • Of the activities mobile device owners said they were prevented from doing because of their concerns, financial transactions such as paying bills (73 percent), conducting banking activities (71 percent) and shopping (56 percent) were named most often.
  • 79 percent of mobile device owners said that they have never sent or received confidential information of any kind through their device, which may further illustrate their lack of confidence in security.

In addition, 44 percent of those surveyed said that they have received spam on their mobile device, stating the most common types to be:

  • Messages asking them to call another number (45 percent)
  • Messages containing a link to another Web site (42 percent)
  • Messages encouraging them to disclose of personal information (29 percent).
  • Messages from a person or entity posing as a trusted contact/source (24 percent)

“The continued rapid growth of mobile messaging has created an environment that is ripe for abuse by attackers, and the situation will undoubtedly worsen for both operators and their customers, if steps are not taken to address messaging security,” says Michael Osterman, founder of Osterman Research. “There is a growing need for solutions that will not only protect customers from messaging threats, but also relieve the cost and infrastructure burden that mobile spam volume is placing on operator networks.”

One such solution is Cloudmark’s newly announced MobileAuthority, geared toward mobile operators to identify malicious senders, detect malicious content for SMS and MMS, and leverage expert recommendations to better protect their environment and customers.

“The prevalence of spam will only continue to rise as financial gain for spammers continues to increase,” says Jamie de Guerre, CTO of Cloudmark. “For new services to succeed, it will be imperative for mobile operators to assure their customers of a secure environment for transactions, and to ensure that mobile spam does not impact the delivery of legitimate messages.”

For survey results and methodology visit: http://www.cloudmark.com/mobilesurvey

Published July 13, 2009