McAfee recently released its 2008 Mobile Security Report, which surveyed more than 2000 customers of major mobile networks in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The primary focus of the study was to determine consumer awareness levels about the emergence of mobile threats such as viruses, spyware, and message spam, as well as to look at consumer opinions of—and experiences with—traditional and emerging data services on mobile devices. Our 2007 Mobile Security Report revealed that 83 percent of carriers worldwide had experienced infections in their network of up to 500,000 devices, and we wanted to see if those events had reached subscriber awareness.

What did we find? The complete results are available here, but they suggest that a significant percentage of consumers are indeed aware of mobile security threats—and are staying away from many features as a result. The findings also indicate that existing threats in the PC world are driving security concerns for almost all new mobile services. Users have a clear understanding of where they think mobile security should come from, and they would like to avoid a PC-like security experience.

Highlights of the findings include:

• Up to 96 percent of mobile consumers are using unprotected devices for increasingly PC-like activities.
• More than half of users (55 percent) believe that pre-installed mobile security functionality should be provided by mobile operator as part of the monthly service agreement—at no additional charge.
• More than a third (34 percent) of global mobile users question the general safety of mobile devices and services.

These are significant data points for the mobile industry, which is currently shifting its focus to the end user. In recent months, we have seen mobile stakeholders taking a more open approach to mobile services, creating a completely new wireless experience, where applications will no longer be tied to specific devices and networks, and mobile users will enjoy many of the benefits that the Internet has already created. Consumers will spend more time on devices and networks, translating into higher revenues for all players involved. In this setup listening to the end user will be more important than ever for creating innovative and intuitive services, and with the Mobile Security Report 2008 McAfee has provided some important market insights for our partners and customers.

The evolution of mobile security
To safeguard the mobile user experience, industry participants have started to define and implement new security requirements. While these requirements focus on handset and network security, new technologies such as Mobile Web 2.0 are creating opportunities and challenges. Leading mobile device and consumer brands have already recognized that user-generated content and off-deck communities dramatically increase the exposure of confidential and personal data shared via mobile devices and networks. Mobile content certification and mobile application assurance, delivered through solutions like McAfee OK, will expand its significance for maintaining user trust and confidence in mobile services now and in the future.

Mobile device platforms are another area of focus for safeguarding the mobile user experience of tomorrow. Recently, Mobile Linux has gained considerable traction in the mobile industry. With the LiMo Foundation for example, major mobile carriers and manufacturers are backing the creation of a new generation of mobile devices based on Mobile Linux. McAfee has been invited to join the LiMo Foundation as the only security vendor and is chairing the security working group.

These industry activities are significant steps forward from the state of mobile security just six months ago, when my colleague Jan Volzke warned consumers to be careful not to get caught in the cracks as the pieces of what he called the "mobile security puzzle" had yet to fall into place. But the mobile security industry is still evolving, and that warning is still relevant. Unfortunately it is only a matter of time until hackers try to apply their extensive experiences on a vastly unprepared community of 3.3 billion mobile subscribers.