Will Proposed
Standard Make
Mobile Phones
More Secure?

Smart phones are becoming increasingly popular. Offering Internet connectivity, they function like minicomputers and can download a growing variety of applications and files, store personal information such as credit card numbers, and even conduct financial transactions.

But as smart phones become more sophisticated, they are also becoming targets for hackers and virus writers. “ Because of increasing e-commerce capabilities, there is more value migrating to these devices,” said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a market analysis firm.

The Trusted Computing Group (www.trustedcomputinggroup.org), an organization with more than 100 members—including component vendors, software developers, and network and infrastructure companies such as Intel, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, VeriSign, and Vodafone—is working on a set of specifications and building blocks for mobile- phone security.

The TCG system would integrate data security into smart phones’ core operations, rather than implementing it via add-on applications.

The TCG’s Mobile Phone Work Group has published 11 use cases that, along with a set of technical requirements, will guide the specification work, slated for completion next year.

The proposed standard would protect user data and transactions, as well as enable intellectual-property (IP) protection, a feature the entertainment industry wants before making popular content available for mobile devices.

Nonetheless, the technology faces several potential hurdles. For example, Seth Schoen, staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital-rights group, said consumers may not like usage restrictions imposed by the technology’s IP protection.

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