Discussion on:

Take these steps to protect your organization from mobile security threats

Our company Just issued Blackberries to our delivery drivers so that they have access to email
and phone. IT has inproved customer service and timely delivery of our products But are they as
hackable as a PDA????

Well, congratulations Mr. Mullins. In typical government fashion you have overstated risks, dreamed up impossible scenarios, included irrelevant recommendations, and left us all shaking in fear.

Thanks a lot for nothing.

'Course, you did manage to get an article published on TechRepublic, and that's something to show Mom next time you go home, right?

Without giving any facts related to the 'in the wild' rare mobile virus/trojan threats which do exist, you've made up your own that don't jibe at all. Good for you. Go back to your 'secret corner' and dream up more things we should spend money to protect our mobile users from. Perhaps chicken pox can be spread by a phone call? Perhaps SARS was really transmitted via an insidious text message?

Let's use some small words to make sure Mr. Mullin can understand:

1) Opening an e-mail on a Palm OS handheld or a Symbian smartphone is not 'dangerous'. And the threat of 'viruses' being anything but a jumble of useless jibberish to the handheld OS is ridiculous at best today. Think about it, folks: Even Mac systems have far fewer virus difficulties than Windows. Why? Because the objective of a virus-writer (scum) is to make an impact forcibly. The writer would have to KNOW that the email they infected was going to specifically attack a mobile device of a specific OS (and version, in many cases) in order for it to even be discernable as an executable on that OS! Gimmee a break, Sherlock. The reason Windows poses such a need for extreme lockdown practices and e-mail training of users is because the UBIQUITOUS, MONOPOLISTIC MARKET STATUS OF WINDOWS MAKES IT THE IDEAL TARGET OF MALEVOLENTS WRITING CODE, TO OBTAIN WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION. There are not enough wireless devices of ONE type, connecting to networks in predictable methods, to make this 'game' fun for the virus writer.
2) The most popular handheld OS, Palm OS, does not 'pop up' warnings about loading 'unsigned' (sic) code. The category simply doesn't exist. Again, the author's lack of real world knowledge has been revealed in this pc-realm astral projection by Mr. Mullin.
3) This one had me in stitches: "If the mobile device is capable of e-mail, then it needs to be capable of loading some type of antivirus client software. You don't allow workstations or laptops to operate without antivirus software?don't make an exception for PDAs." C'mon, everybody. Let's be sure to give Symantec thousands of bucks for antivirus software that will catch, err, uh...um...NOTHING. Mr. Mullin, it takes a few seconds to google out the hilarity of this proposal-- the most notable 'virus'/trojan in the mobile sector has come through a 'proof-of-concept' written by a team of sycophants in Europe which threatens Series 60 phones. Well, not really. the recipient of the bluetooth 'attack' must be near the attacker, and must ok the installing of a 'pushed file'. This is hardly the scenario of doomsday portended by this author. Again, it goes in the 'yah, sure, you betcha' file.


I could go on point by point, but the hapless Mullins should be given a chance for redemption whilst still able to stand.

I'm out.

I'll try to use smaller words next time so you can follow and understand the articles. Enjoy your *nix system and don't worry about security threats. Let the pros handle it.