Mobile Security Expert John Hering of Lookout
You’ve just purchased a shiny new smartphone and logged in to a mobile app store to. You download cool apps. Smartphone mobile security is the last thing on your mind.
Soon your phone’s screen fills with dozens of colorful icon–The best apps to access FaceBook and Twitter, incredible mobile games, mapping, music, photos and more. You just can’t stop.
But hidden in the software code of some apps are Trojan horses, worms, viruses and other malicious malware. Your smartphone mobile security is compromised. Sweat breaks out on your forehead when you think you’re infected. Your heart beats fastser. What do you do
Ask John Hering, Co-Founder and CEO of Lookout, a cloud-based smartphone security company in San Francisco. John lives and breathes wireless security.
Back in 2004-2005, when few people were thinking about worms and Trojan horses on phones, John and his team thought about the day when mobile smartphone apps would infect mobile phones.
A few companies, like F-Secure, for example, identified a mobile Trojan called Skulls.D, a Symbian 60 flash attacker that, laughingly, put a skull on Nokia phone screens It crippled all features except making calls.
Then in 2006, Sophos Labs found the first cell phone Trojan called the Redbrowser. That bugger turned a WAP-less mobile device into a money-making machine. Phones in Russia started automatically sending out premium rate SMS text messages costing phone users a dollar here and there. Many phone users didn’t even realize they were paying cyber criminals a salary.
Back in L.A., Hering and his USC friends did a less damaging study. They built a software script, using Bluetooth, to determine the security of phones at the Academy Awards. As the New York Times reported, over 100 attendees’ were carrying unsafe phones. Robin Williams, the comedian and actor, was one of the. But, according to John, he took it all in stride. Malware? Trojans? Must be bigger issues when you’re nominated for best ___ of the year.
Recently, Russian cell phone users experienced a smartphone mobile security breach (Trojan horse attack on Android phones), the first Trojan found on the Android operating system. Kaspersky Labs identified it as a premium rate SMS attack and Lookout noted it in a blog post.
The story also made the New York Times. As John points out in our interview, attacks of this type on mobile phones can immediately cause financial consequences. PC invasions, however, may take time to acquire stolen information, such as credit card numbers for illegal purchases.
The Lookout Service: Anti-Virus/malware, Data Backup and Phone Recovery
Lookout, formerly called Flexilis, develops smarstphone security, data backup and phone recovery software if your mobile is lost or stolen. Since Lookout’s solutions are cloud-based, it off-loads phone processing on your your Windows, Android or BlackBerry. Lookout’s service even identifies the physical location of your smartphone a device.
When I first tested the service on a Blackberry Curve, Lookout incorrectly mapped it under the San Francisco Bay Bridge. With GPS on, though, Lookout correctly display my phone’s location within several blocks of my home. Backing up my BlackBerry data went quickly after the first back-up. Anti-Virus software ran quietly in the background.
In the podcast interview, John Hering discusses how users can enhance smartphone mobile security when downloading mobile Internet apps and trends in the mobile security industry.
About Lookout
The Lookout service currently has a free and paid version and works on 400 mobile networks in 170 countries.
John Hering Short Bio
John is a successful entrepreneur with a passion for solving consumer problems. He co-founded Lookout (formerly Flexilis), along with James Burgess and Kevin Mahaffey, after extensive research into mobile security threats. Prior to Lookout, John founded Unwire Iraq, a non-profit providing wireless networks to U.S. combat troops, and Daily
Lookout Smartphone Device Tools
Wireless, an online news and information source covering all aspects of the wireless marketplace for business (acquired by Focus Research, Inc.). His Bluetooth Sniper project resulted in a world-record-setting attack on a Bluetooth-enabled mobile device from a distance of more than 1.2 miles.
John is a frequent speaker at industry events, including Black Hat Technical Security Conference, DEFCON, Microsoft’s Bluehat Security Conference and was recently selected by BusinessWeek as a Best Young Tech Entrepreneur for 2010.
John studied at the University of Southern California and has extensive experience with information security and wireless communication technologies.
Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20011780-245.html
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