Experts say that, as smart phones become more and more like the computers that people use every day, they will become equally vulnerable to the types of security threats that PCs face. But researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with the help of a $450,000 National Science Foundation grant, will try to hold back the tide.

Smart phones pose certain unique challenges to cell phone management professionals – users are not in the habit of using security programs on their phones – but the Georgia Tech researchers hope to give those professionals new weapons against hackers. The current project is a type of wireless device management system that can remotely detect and sequester cell phone malware without the intervention of the user.

"While a single user might realize that a phone is behaving differently, that person probably won’t know why, but a cell phone provider may see a thousand devices behaving in the same way and have the ability to do something about it," said Georgia Tech assistant professor Patrick Traynor in a statement.

Wireless malware has been in the news recently, with a pair of iPhone worms making their presence felt among users of the jailbroken version of that handset.

This entry was posted by Mobility Management News Desk on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Managing Mobile Devices News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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