Official Mobile Security & Innovative Technologies Blog
This blog is managed/edited by Eric Everson. The purpose of this blog is to discuss common threats and solutions that exist within the mobile community in addition to the intricacies of innovative technologies and the markets therein.
Thank you for taking the time to review my blog; I am Eric Everson the founder of MyMobiSafe.com. In addition to my duties at MyMobiSafe, LLC I am also a full-time graduate student and mobile industry researcher. As a mobile security expert and innovative technologies leader, I am glad to answer any questions you may have: EricEverson@Hotmail.com
Wednesday 23 July 2008, 6:39 PM
The vPhone: Why Visa Should Go Mobile
The vPhone: Why Visa Should Go Mobile
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
With all of the success of Apple’s iPhone, there is a growing case to support a company like Visa entering the mobile industry too. With the emergence of mobile banking and the success of niche targeting phones, there is potentially a bright future for Visa in this industry.
As the founder of MyMobiSafe.com, mobile banking has become an area of interest for a number of reasons. First and foremost, is the reason that seemingly everything we do as consumer nations requires money. Once we trust our phones enough to carry out routine financial transactions (which many users are already beginning to adopt) the role of mobile finance is infinite in possibility. If Visa were to introduce a phone, it should, like the iPhone focus on a niche user group.
Those late teens to thirty-something’s that make up the early adopter footprint are the ones that are already using mobile banking. The Visa “vPhone” should focus on consolidating all of the things that can be done into a single handset. As many vendors are beginning to adopt the tap and go payment solutions, this should be built into the vPhone. Let me do my shopping and then tap my phone and enter my PIN and be done with it. If I want to login to my handset to check my Visa balance or current transaction history I should be able to. If I want to get a cash advance so I can carry some cash around, let me use the tap and go system.
As one stops to consider it, the very notion of mobility is limited by the fact that there is not a phone already designed to cater towards our mobile lifestyles. For male users the vPhone carries the innovative potential for allowing us to quit carrying our wallets at all. There are many people that have already started tucking their credit card into their cell phone case to alleviate the hassle of a wallet, so it would be nice to have a phone that incorporated it.
What about the security issues one may ask? What if my phone gets stolen or lost? There are already a number of platforms available that could be used to disable or lock the phone. Additionally as all cell phones have GPS capability now anyway, who is the idiot thief that would even consider taking such a phone? That would be the equivalent of inviting the police to your hideout. There are many security features that could be integrated into the vPhone that would not only ensure that it is the safest phone around, but that it is capable of taking mobile finance to the next level.
Anyone else want a Visa phone? Me too!
Cheers,
MobileTech
Your mobile security guru…
Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
With all of the success of Apple’s iPhone, there is a growing case to support a company like Visa entering the mobile industry too. With the emergence of mobile banking and the success of niche targeting phones, there is potentially a bright future for Visa in this industry.
As the founder of MyMobiSafe.com, mobile banking has become an area of interest for a number of reasons. First and foremost, is the reason that seemingly everything we do as consumer nations requires money. Once we trust our phones enough to carry out routine financial transactions (which many users are already beginning to adopt) the role of mobile finance is infinite in possibility. If Visa were to introduce a phone, it should, like the iPhone focus on a niche user group.
Those late teens to thirty-something’s that make up the early adopter footprint are the ones that are already using mobile banking. The Visa “vPhone” should focus on consolidating all of the things that can be done into a single handset. As many vendors are beginning to adopt the tap and go payment solutions, this should be built into the vPhone. Let me do my shopping and then tap my phone and enter my PIN and be done with it. If I want to login to my handset to check my Visa balance or current transaction history I should be able to. If I want to get a cash advance so I can carry some cash around, let me use the tap and go system.
As one stops to consider it, the very notion of mobility is limited by the fact that there is not a phone already designed to cater towards our mobile lifestyles. For male users the vPhone carries the innovative potential for allowing us to quit carrying our wallets at all. There are many people that have already started tucking their credit card into their cell phone case to alleviate the hassle of a wallet, so it would be nice to have a phone that incorporated it.
What about the security issues one may ask? What if my phone gets stolen or lost? There are already a number of platforms available that could be used to disable or lock the phone. Additionally as all cell phones have GPS capability now anyway, who is the idiot thief that would even consider taking such a phone? That would be the equivalent of inviting the police to your hideout. There are many security features that could be integrated into the vPhone that would not only ensure that it is the safest phone around, but that it is capable of taking mobile finance to the next level.
Anyone else want a Visa phone? Me too!
Cheers,
MobileTech
Your mobile security guru…
Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
Wednesday 23 July 2008, 4:41 AM
The Google Apple Merger: Fantasy or Future?
The Google Apple Merger: Fantasy or Future?
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
Market research suggests that Microsoft controls upwards of 90% of the respective computer-based Operating System software industry. Whether a perfect number or not, there is no denying that this is a colossal company. Competitors like Apple and Google may offer a greater degree of threat to Microsoft than at any other time in history. Could a merger between Apple and Google knock Microsoft into the #2 spot?
Just to look at market capitalization for a moment Google sits at about $149.86 billion while Apple rings weighs in around $142.84 billion. To put this in perspective with Microsoft, America’s software giant has a market capitalization of around $236.10 billion independently. It doesn’t take a software engineering/ MBA pursuing graduate student to see that the combined financials of Google and Apple would automatically merit some shifting of the proverbial podium. The numbers are an important aspect of this equation, but what about the real market implications?
Where could the combined Google-Apple (Would it be called “Goopple”?) really pose the greatest threat to a company like Microsoft (one that reportedly controls 90% of their respective market share)? As a pioneer of mobile security, I believe that the answer lies within the mobile-based Operating Systems. This is an area that while Microsoft is slowly gaining traction, they remain far from the position of market control that they have over the computer-based industry. While the per unit profit margin may not be as high in mobile today, it is a market that will dwarf the size of the computer industry within the next ten years.
So could Google and Apple team up and with their combined size and strengths in innovation to take control of the future (oops I mean wireless industry) thus placing the Microsoft stronghold on the future at risk? If I am to become tomorrow’s Warren Buffett, I would put my money on the disruptive potential of Google and Apple. Perhaps it is a merger that will only play out in fantasy land, but should it ever start to materialize Steve Ballmer can’t say I didn’t forewarn.
This little scenario points out the strategic potential of the wireless industry in such a way that might even make Bill Gates snap out of retirement faster than Jay-Z! Could two smaller cats take down an elephant in the wild? Do you ever watch National Geographic?
As a mobile security professional, the market looks like it is being primed by the confusion created by the whimsical moves towards open source. The wireless industry is begging for a new king, the only question remains who will take command?
Cheers,
MobileTech
Your trusted mobile security guru.
Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
Market research suggests that Microsoft controls upwards of 90% of the respective computer-based Operating System software industry. Whether a perfect number or not, there is no denying that this is a colossal company. Competitors like Apple and Google may offer a greater degree of threat to Microsoft than at any other time in history. Could a merger between Apple and Google knock Microsoft into the #2 spot?
Just to look at market capitalization for a moment Google sits at about $149.86 billion while Apple rings weighs in around $142.84 billion. To put this in perspective with Microsoft, America’s software giant has a market capitalization of around $236.10 billion independently. It doesn’t take a software engineering/ MBA pursuing graduate student to see that the combined financials of Google and Apple would automatically merit some shifting of the proverbial podium. The numbers are an important aspect of this equation, but what about the real market implications?
Where could the combined Google-Apple (Would it be called “Goopple”?) really pose the greatest threat to a company like Microsoft (one that reportedly controls 90% of their respective market share)? As a pioneer of mobile security, I believe that the answer lies within the mobile-based Operating Systems. This is an area that while Microsoft is slowly gaining traction, they remain far from the position of market control that they have over the computer-based industry. While the per unit profit margin may not be as high in mobile today, it is a market that will dwarf the size of the computer industry within the next ten years.
So could Google and Apple team up and with their combined size and strengths in innovation to take control of the future (oops I mean wireless industry) thus placing the Microsoft stronghold on the future at risk? If I am to become tomorrow’s Warren Buffett, I would put my money on the disruptive potential of Google and Apple. Perhaps it is a merger that will only play out in fantasy land, but should it ever start to materialize Steve Ballmer can’t say I didn’t forewarn.
This little scenario points out the strategic potential of the wireless industry in such a way that might even make Bill Gates snap out of retirement faster than Jay-Z! Could two smaller cats take down an elephant in the wild? Do you ever watch National Geographic?
As a mobile security professional, the market looks like it is being primed by the confusion created by the whimsical moves towards open source. The wireless industry is begging for a new king, the only question remains who will take command?
Cheers,
MobileTech
Your trusted mobile security guru.
Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
Sunday 20 July 2008, 6:19 PM
Mobile Rockstar: Guitar Hero Going Mobile!
Mobile Rockstar: Guitar Hero Going Mobile?
Author: Eric Everson, MyMobiSafe.com
If you have found yourself compulsively obsessed with that four key plastic guitar from the famed Guitar Hero games, you are not alone. Many taverns the world over are replacing yesterday’s karaoke with tomorrows Guitar Hero Showdown. For those of you addicted to the point of considering calling off of work to play Guitar Hero, I have good news… it looks like the game is coming to a cell phone near you!
That’s right the Guitar Hero you love is quickly becoming the latest mobile craze! Basically it is said to work like this: Notes on the phone screen will start to appear and the gamer must hit numbers on their keypad to match the colors of the notes. The mobile version is a scaled down version of the Xbox favorite restricting the gamer to a single guitar choice and an initial catalogue of about 15 songs. The release is being made first in the U.S. market and is set to hit the U.K. by late summer.
With mobile gaming growing with such fervor, it is no wonder so many people are opting to put down their Microsoft Xbox in favor of their Windows Mobile handset! Is this yet another telling sign of my prediction that mobile phones are replacing computers… I’ll leave that for you to debate. Mobile gaming is one of the hottest mobile growth markets today, which leaves many wondering what if any security implications may be rising to the surface.
It is well known that handset level security is significantly subpar to computer-based security, so naturally mobile gaming is not without its risks. The most important attribute that a mobile user can look for are the credentials of their game maker. Are they working with companies like MyMobiSafe to ensure that their content is safe for their users? While not every mobile user may employ a handset security solution, it is important that everyone trust their mobile content. Games are the easiest way to pass Trojan-style viruses between mobile handsets, so verified mobile content is becoming a major issue respectively.
In short, make sure you trust your mobile gamming source and look for their MyMobiSafe Verified Mobile Content logo and party like a Guitar Hero rockstar!
Cheers,
Eric Everson – a.k.a MobileTech
Founder, MyMobiSafe.com
Author: Eric Everson, MyMobiSafe.com
If you have found yourself compulsively obsessed with that four key plastic guitar from the famed Guitar Hero games, you are not alone. Many taverns the world over are replacing yesterday’s karaoke with tomorrows Guitar Hero Showdown. For those of you addicted to the point of considering calling off of work to play Guitar Hero, I have good news… it looks like the game is coming to a cell phone near you!
That’s right the Guitar Hero you love is quickly becoming the latest mobile craze! Basically it is said to work like this: Notes on the phone screen will start to appear and the gamer must hit numbers on their keypad to match the colors of the notes. The mobile version is a scaled down version of the Xbox favorite restricting the gamer to a single guitar choice and an initial catalogue of about 15 songs. The release is being made first in the U.S. market and is set to hit the U.K. by late summer.
With mobile gaming growing with such fervor, it is no wonder so many people are opting to put down their Microsoft Xbox in favor of their Windows Mobile handset! Is this yet another telling sign of my prediction that mobile phones are replacing computers… I’ll leave that for you to debate. Mobile gaming is one of the hottest mobile growth markets today, which leaves many wondering what if any security implications may be rising to the surface.
It is well known that handset level security is significantly subpar to computer-based security, so naturally mobile gaming is not without its risks. The most important attribute that a mobile user can look for are the credentials of their game maker. Are they working with companies like MyMobiSafe to ensure that their content is safe for their users? While not every mobile user may employ a handset security solution, it is important that everyone trust their mobile content. Games are the easiest way to pass Trojan-style viruses between mobile handsets, so verified mobile content is becoming a major issue respectively.
In short, make sure you trust your mobile gamming source and look for their MyMobiSafe Verified Mobile Content logo and party like a Guitar Hero rockstar!
Cheers,
Eric Everson – a.k.a MobileTech
Founder, MyMobiSafe.com
Friday 11 July 2008, 2:45 AM
Hello, I’m a PC. I’m a Handheld.
Hello, I’m a PC. I’m a Handheld.
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
I have said it before and I am sure I’ll say it again, mobile devices are simply replacing computers. Having said that with a certain degree of conviction, I can’t help but recall that ever present quote that is credited to Bill Gates, “When you want to do your homework, fill out your tax return, or see all the choices for a trip you want to take, you need a full-size screen.”
As a mere grad student of software engineering, who am I to question the “Pope of Software” himself… yet here I stand. Perhaps it is that I am actually seeing people begin to adopt the Vuzix headgear or perhaps it is because I know that once the Internet is on every cell phone the computer industry as we know it today will be facing significant hurdles. Perhaps now is a good time for the Dell’s of the world to start their R&D in the direction of handhelds. I can only speak for myself, but those Alienware phones (just Google Image it already) are hot.
So will the computer-based sister industry of wireless fade to wireless? I will be the last one to say that computers will be gone forever (after all we still use trains and they have been around in Europe since the 1770’s) but their role is destined to change. What we do on computers today is what we will all do from our mobile in the future. Today’s computer standards will give way to what we currently call “super computers” (another definition that will continue to evolve).
How does this change take place? What is the catalyst for this leap? Perhaps I am biased but arguably I defend that this migration takes place in security. After all, was it not the honorable Bill Gates that also said, “Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers - organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative - if we don't solve these security problems, then people will hold back.” When people throughout the world are as comfortable using their cell phone for banking as they are their debit cards, by then my friend I will have already answered “the How” and “the What” for you.
Mobile banking is not a fad; it is the way most of our banking will be conducted in the future. For as many tweens you see carrying a cell phone today, I see another mobile banker tomorrow.
Hello, I’m a PC. I’m a Handheld.
Cheers,
Eric Everson (Mobile Security Guru)
Founder, MyMobiSafe.com
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
I have said it before and I am sure I’ll say it again, mobile devices are simply replacing computers. Having said that with a certain degree of conviction, I can’t help but recall that ever present quote that is credited to Bill Gates, “When you want to do your homework, fill out your tax return, or see all the choices for a trip you want to take, you need a full-size screen.”
As a mere grad student of software engineering, who am I to question the “Pope of Software” himself… yet here I stand. Perhaps it is that I am actually seeing people begin to adopt the Vuzix headgear or perhaps it is because I know that once the Internet is on every cell phone the computer industry as we know it today will be facing significant hurdles. Perhaps now is a good time for the Dell’s of the world to start their R&D in the direction of handhelds. I can only speak for myself, but those Alienware phones (just Google Image it already) are hot.
So will the computer-based sister industry of wireless fade to wireless? I will be the last one to say that computers will be gone forever (after all we still use trains and they have been around in Europe since the 1770’s) but their role is destined to change. What we do on computers today is what we will all do from our mobile in the future. Today’s computer standards will give way to what we currently call “super computers” (another definition that will continue to evolve).
How does this change take place? What is the catalyst for this leap? Perhaps I am biased but arguably I defend that this migration takes place in security. After all, was it not the honorable Bill Gates that also said, “Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers - organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative - if we don't solve these security problems, then people will hold back.” When people throughout the world are as comfortable using their cell phone for banking as they are their debit cards, by then my friend I will have already answered “the How” and “the What” for you.
Mobile banking is not a fad; it is the way most of our banking will be conducted in the future. For as many tweens you see carrying a cell phone today, I see another mobile banker tomorrow.
Hello, I’m a PC. I’m a Handheld.
Cheers,
Eric Everson (Mobile Security Guru)
Founder, MyMobiSafe.com
Tuesday 8 July 2008, 5:43 PM
Mobile Open Source: A Torrent of Implication
Mobile Open Source: A Torrent of Implication
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
There is a change working its way through the wireless industry that is fraught with the dynamics of a digital revolution. The buzz word “Open Source” has been a skirting temptation of the wireless industry for years, but only now are words becoming actions.
I credit our beloved friends over at Google for throwing the gasoline into the fire with their open source Android Operating System. Since that pivotal moment many Operating System (OS) providers have pledged an allegiance to the open source movement. Most recently Nokia has announced that the Symbian OS is destined to an open source fate.
Historically a significant degree of industrial isolation has created islands of innovation throughout the wireless industry. Since the beginning, cell phone manufactures have opted to employ their proprietary Mobile Operating Systems (pMOPS) creating little latitude for third party developers. Additionally this past trend has created gaping holes of incompatibility between handsets. The industry’s move towards open source is however breaking down such barriers of isolation creating the conditions for a surge of development.
Potentially in no other area than the development of a Universal Mobile Torrent (UMT) does this carry a greater short term impact. The phrase UMT still implies a fabled vision of a torrent application capable of connecting all cell phones. Nonetheless, the move towards open source bodes well for UMT architectures as developers will no longer be limited by the traditional confines of pMOPS. Additionally, an industry wide leap towards open source carries the potential of mitigating the ongoing research of deploying agent-oriented designs into torrent platforms to bypass constraints created by existing pMOPS.
UMT’s are but one aspect of development (the one which I feel offers the most significant impact in mobile security at the handset level) while many angles of third party development will also open like flood gates. A paradigm shift of open source MOPS threatens the pMOP tradition of extensive licensing fees against developer while it stands to create a free market seasoned for innovation. A move to open source within the wireless industry could take us from a plane of limited content to a terrain full of fresh developments. In the end the move towards mobile open source offers a torrent of implication.
Cheers,
MobileTech
Eric Everson, Founder
MyMobiSafe.com
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com
There is a change working its way through the wireless industry that is fraught with the dynamics of a digital revolution. The buzz word “Open Source” has been a skirting temptation of the wireless industry for years, but only now are words becoming actions.
I credit our beloved friends over at Google for throwing the gasoline into the fire with their open source Android Operating System. Since that pivotal moment many Operating System (OS) providers have pledged an allegiance to the open source movement. Most recently Nokia has announced that the Symbian OS is destined to an open source fate.
Historically a significant degree of industrial isolation has created islands of innovation throughout the wireless industry. Since the beginning, cell phone manufactures have opted to employ their proprietary Mobile Operating Systems (pMOPS) creating little latitude for third party developers. Additionally this past trend has created gaping holes of incompatibility between handsets. The industry’s move towards open source is however breaking down such barriers of isolation creating the conditions for a surge of development.
Potentially in no other area than the development of a Universal Mobile Torrent (UMT) does this carry a greater short term impact. The phrase UMT still implies a fabled vision of a torrent application capable of connecting all cell phones. Nonetheless, the move towards open source bodes well for UMT architectures as developers will no longer be limited by the traditional confines of pMOPS. Additionally, an industry wide leap towards open source carries the potential of mitigating the ongoing research of deploying agent-oriented designs into torrent platforms to bypass constraints created by existing pMOPS.
UMT’s are but one aspect of development (the one which I feel offers the most significant impact in mobile security at the handset level) while many angles of third party development will also open like flood gates. A paradigm shift of open source MOPS threatens the pMOP tradition of extensive licensing fees against developer while it stands to create a free market seasoned for innovation. A move to open source within the wireless industry could take us from a plane of limited content to a terrain full of fresh developments. In the end the move towards mobile open source offers a torrent of implication.
Cheers,
MobileTech
Eric Everson, Founder
MyMobiSafe.com
Previous
