Tag: mobile security technology

Mobile security company, Lacoon, acquired by Check Point

| April 7, 2015

The announcement of the purchase of the Israeli company has now been officially made.

Check Point Software Technologies has now officially announced the acquisition of the Israel based Lacoon Mobile Security business, following a slew of reports that had appeared throughout March.

Last month’s reports had suggested that the companies had been in talks for an $80 million purchase.

As of the writing of this article, the actual price of the sale of the mobile security company had not been released. That said, the deal has now officially closed and has been announced by the companies. This purchase of Lacoon will hand Check Point an important piece in the smartphone and tablet based security puzzle. This will allow it to step its offerings up from the standard mobile device management that is the foundation of many of its rivals. This, according to the vice president of business development at Check Point, Alon Kantor.

Adding mobile security to device management can provide an entirely new level to remote services.

Mobile Security - Company AcquiredTypically speaking, mobile device management has to do with providing IT with control over a smartphone or tablet in a remote way, so that actions can be taken such as removing corporate data from a personal device if an employee should leave the business, or even completely wiping a stolen phone.

What makes Lacoon unique is the way in which it looks at mobile device security. Kantor described it by saying that “MDM manages the devices and the applications while the Lacoon solution is about securing these devices and blocking advanced mobile threats such as malware, [advanced persistent threats] or targeted network attacks.”

This functions with both Android and iOS based devices. It collects data with regards to threats and then complements any other existing security infrastructure that a company has put into place. This could provide Check Point with a very powerful mobile security tool, according to Constellation Research principal, R. Ray Wang. He explained that instead of having to depend on the reaction of MDM to a threat to security, once it has already happened, Lacoon protects proactively to protect against the attacks in the first place.

Mobile security technology provides a malware protection boost

| April 1, 2015

A new form of tech developed by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers is simple but effective.

Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham have now come up with a new form of mobile security protection that uses certain simple but highly effective techniques that are able to stop sophisticated malware from sneaking their way into smartphones in order to attack them.

The development of this type of protection against mobile malware has become vitally important.

As well over half of all American adults now have smartphones, mobile security has become critical to providing protection against malware and other forms of cyber attack. While it is well recognized that computers such as laptops and desktops require this type of protection – typically in the form of firewalls and antivirus programs – many mobile device owners don’t realize how vulnerable their smartphones truly are. Moreover many of the apps that are available to protect devices take up too much space and require too much power.

This new mobile security technology has been developed to overcome those problems for improved protection.

Mobile Security - Malware ProtectionThe new form of mobile malware defense technology was revealed in St. Louis at the IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications. As smartphones become more important and more commonplace, they have become prime targets to people who would seek to use them for malicious activities. This has caused an explosion in malware that can enter into mobile devices by way of any number of sources.

Primarily, this involves hidden malicious codes buried inside downloaded apps. Once they have been installed into mobile technology devices, there are various ways in which it can then exploit the gadget. This can include learning sensitive personal information about the user, taking over the camera to spy on the user, or even making premium rate phone calls without the user ever being aware that this is occurring.

It may even activate the NFC (near field communication technology) in the device for an entirely new form of mobile security problem – scanning for nearby credit cards that are NFC enabled for contactless payments. The researchers have come up with a way to more effectively block this type of digital invasion.