Mobile Outlook may invite viruses

From...

By David Watson
Computerworld New Zealand Online

(IDG) -- The emergence of cell-phone viruses is inevitable, say security specialists, following the launch of a Vodafone New Zealand service that delivers Microsoft Outlook over its cellular network.

Microsoft, Vodafone Group, and Hewlett-Packard announced the deal last week, though the service will at first be confined to New Zealand. While HP is part of the initial promotion, the service will be available on a range of phones and portable wireless devices, not just HP's. Microsoft business development manager Steve Haddock expects other wireless carriers to offer the service in the future.

The basis of the service is Microsoft's latest mobile information server, MIS 2002, which includes Outlook Mobile Access -- an application that enables users in the field to access Outlook features such as e-mail, contacts, calendar, tasks, and intranet applications. MIS 2002 goes beyond its predecessor, MIS 2001, in enabling synchronization between mobile devices and the server.

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Microsoft and Vodafone say extensive security measures are in place, but Symantec manager Richard Batchelar says viruses and other security threats to Outlook are as real in the wireless world as in the desktop PC environment. It's a matter of when -- rather than if -- viruses begin attacking Outlook Mobile Access and other wireless e-mail and data applications, he says.

Security improved

Co-Logic E-Secure IT alert service owner Arjen de Landgraaf says that sending a text message to a mobile phone is "probably more secure" than sending a message to an e-mail address. With the development of services such as the MIS 2002-based one, "hackers will now target the generic vulnerabilities in mobile phones -- it's happened already and the current level of security isn't enough to prevent it," he says.

The principle of mobile access to Outlook and other e-mail services is good, but when vulnerabilities are identified, they will need to be patched, as they are with wired communications, de Landgraaf adds.

Vodafone spokesman Don Pointon says that the WAP security standard's wireless transport layer security covers all WAP transmissions and that text messages are incapable of delivering viruses.

Pointon says that MOSO -- a product that Vodafone developed last year in partnership with Microsoft and Ericsson -- though similar to the MIS 2002 service, is more limited: It allows out-of-office workers to access their e-mail via wireless devices, but doesn't have the proactive alert or synchronization capabilities of MIS 2002. Vodafone no longer actively promotes MOSO, he says.