Author: Julie Campbell

Mobile security feature could save consumers $2.5 billion every year

| April 7, 2014

The controversial “kill switch” for smartphones could bring massive savings, according to a study.

Lawmakers, consumers, and law enforcement officials have been considering the idea of an added mobile security feature for smartphones in the form of a kill switch, particularly since the launch of last year’s Secure Our Smartphones initiative.

Now, a study has shown that by introducing the feature, the outcome would be considerable savings.

The idea of the kill switch is relatively simple. The “complicated” part would be that it would require handset manufacturers and wireless carriers to take part in this mobile security effort that would provide a way to render stolen smartphones completely useless. The hope is that this would help to notably reduce the rate of cell phone theft.

The only party who would not benefit from this mobile security kill switches would be wireless carriers.

The reason is that the carriers would risk losing a very large amount of money every year. At the moment, they are making a solid supplementary income through the sale of insurance plans that provide coverage against the theft of cell phones. According to professor William Duckworth from Creighton University, who recently conducted a study on the subject, consumers would save an estimated $2.5 billion every year simply through the implementation of kill switches.Mobile Security - Savings

When looked at even more closely, this represents a savings of $500 million in replacing the handsets that have been stolen, and a savings of $2 billion on the insurance coverage to provide protection against possible theft. This helps to explain exactly why wireless carriers may not be quite as excited about this feature as consumers.

That said, it is important to point out that these findings have generated some controversy of their own. For example, Asurion, a cell phone insurance company, has estimated that approximately 60 percent of phones that have gone missing turn out to have simply been lost, not stolen. Moreover, they also have suggested that phones may still be targeted for theft and use for spare parts, which would still provide thieves with enough incentive to continue stealing. Still, the FCC says that 30 to 40 percent of all robberies that occur in major cities involve phone theft.

Mobile security thumbs up from DoD networks to BlackBerry 10

| April 4, 2014

The government has given their approval to the BB10 operating system for running on Defense Department networks.

BlackBerry’s ongoing battle to make its way back into profitability received a notable boost in recent news, as the handset manufacturer’s BlackBerry 10 operating system received the mobile security green light for running on Defense Department networks.

The “full operational capacity” (FOC) designation has now been granted to the BB10 OS.

The Defense Information Systems Agency granted the FOC designation that showed that the mobile security levels were satisfactory for the department’s requirements. That agency is responsible for much of the push for the DoD toward mobility. This makes the company the first one to receive this FOC, and follows on the heels of an announcement made last August, which indicated that the authority would be operating its BlackBerry Q10 and Z10 smartphones with the management solution from BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10.

This mobile security approval allows government users to access a number of DoD network resources via smartphones.

Because the FOC has now been granted, it means that government users who have mobile devices based on BlackBerry 10 can remain connected with the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. This allows them to securely obtain access to apps, email, information, and other network resources from the Department of Defense. This, according to a recent news release from the Canadian handset manufacturer.Mobile Security Thumbs Up

That company was also the first to receive Assurance to Operate (ATO) from the Department of Defense, and is now the only vendor that has achieved FOC. Now that it has received this new designation, it means that BlackBerry’s DoD mobile security certification process has finally been completed. This has been a lengthy effort that the manufacturer has been determined to achieve.

BlackBerry has long been associated with very highly secured hardware and software products and it has been working with the Department of Defense in the United States for several years. This positive news of its certification has come at a time in which the company has been making a number of strategic moves to recreate itself and return to its former level of profitability.