By Derek Manky

Are mobile phones and other wireless devices the new weakest link in securing information outside of corporate networks? We all know that “bad” guys take notice of new tech and gadgets and create attacks based on the latest trends---how are enterprises keeping up? With mobile usage of Facebook and Twitter rising users can affect enterprise networks easily without knowing it. What are some best practices and concerns to avoid horrible issues? What should wireless gurus know about unforeseen security issues created through wireless devices?

While malicious activities on handheld devices like smart phones have been relatively low, there are several indicators to suggest that things are about to change. Enterprises will need to start thinking seriously about a mobile threat prevention strategy to ensure that their networks are not vulnerable to the new threats that will abound with the increasing mobile activities of their users.

The growing prevalence of 3G networks is enabling broader bandwidth for mobile devices, which means more of the bad content is getting in with the good. 3G also enables network operators to offer a wider range of more advanced mobile services, such as real-time access to high-quality audio/video transmission. For example, with its application portal, Apple, which has a small percentage of the handset market, has already changed the way many people interact with their smart phones, while Microsoft and Nokia are also talking up their own similar portals. The level of personalization and customization possible with these portals will mean new uses, both good and bad, will be found. This presents a big concern for corporate network managers as users are no longer bound by factory-installed applications. With this greater usability, consumers are now adopting smart phones in greater numbers for business and for personal use. iSuppli Corp. predicted in a March 2009 report that the number of smart phone shipments is expected to grow to as high as 192.3 million units this year, up 11.1 percent from 2008.

No doubt, the smart phone is becoming much more personal and indispensable to consumers, and where consumers go, money goes, and crime will soon to follow. This adds up to increased opportunities for virus infections and attacks that will require a focused approach to secure the millions of handheld mobile devices in operation today, especially for enterprises. Smart phones pose an even greater security risk to corporations as they have become the mobile office for their ability to access corporate networks in real time, much in the way that laptops have been able to do. This presents cybercriminals with the opportunity to use smart phones as the launch pad for penetrating and accessing sensitive corporate data. Fortinet believes the increased usability of smart phones and other wireless devices and the new business models they enable will become the biggest threat to corporate security in the near future.

The mobile market presents a unique position in terms of malware as compared to the traditional PC market. The platforms available for attack on PC platforms are limited – Windows, MacIntosh and Linux – while the number of mobile platforms continues to grow: Google Android, Apple mobile OS, SymbianOS, Windows Mobile, Palm. For example, we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg with Google’s Android OS vulnerability discovered late last year. And just last month, discovery of the new SymbOS/Yxes.A!worm (AKA “Sexy View”) mobile worm gives strong indication that we may be on the edge of a mobile botnet. This sophisticated SMS-propagation strategy, which hosts the worm on malicious servers, allows cybercriminals to effectively mutate the worm by adding or removing functionality.

A managed client capable of detecting software installations and monitoring file access in addition to encrypting data and reporting status to a central server is the answer for network managers grappling with an active mobile work force. Network managers will want to look for solutions that provide multi-layered protection for blended threats and that protects across all device interfaces. The ideal mobile client solution would be part of an integrated, end-to-end network security platform that offers accelerated hardware and impinges minimum performance impact on user device and services. In addition, the network security platform should offer configuration management and control with reporting, and flexibly-defined profiles and policies for granular network segmentation capabilities.

For the end-user, both corporate and private, here are some tips to follow for the safe usage of their mobile device:

1) Similar to patch management on PC platforms, apply any updates to mobile platforms as soon as they become available. For example, Google quickly issued a fixed when the vulnerability in its open source Android OS was discovered in late 2008. Be educated and aware of threats that bridge to the Internet.

2) Phishing scams looking for bank account information or corporate credentials are very real to hit users on mobile devices, just as they are with PCs. Just like social networks, mobile networks through voice contacts are highly trusted. Attempt to verify the identity of any incoming messages that are suspicious. Reply with something simple like “What is this?” to ensure you are able to confirm that the source of the message is trusted.

3) Be aware of what you install. For example, the worm SymbOS/BeSeLo used social engineering over MMS to install itself. It prompted the user to install an application which had a file extension .mp3 or .jpg; users should be aware of this and not install anything that haven’t confirmed as being from a trusted source. Many users have “jailbroken” phones, such as the iPhone, which means that uncontrolled (unsigned) code can be run. This is a very big security risk, and users should be aware of the risks they take when they unlock phone functionality.

4) Disable communication channels such as Bluetooth by default, only enabling them on a per-session requirement. This removes an attack avenue. By taking simple precautionary measures, it effectively helps to harden your smart device.

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Mr Derek Manky, Fortinet Inc’s Project Manager for Cyber Security and Threat Research. Fortinet is a leading provider of network security appliances and the market leader in Unified Threat Management or UTM. Fortinet integrates multiple levels of security protection (such as firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, VPN, spyware prevention and antispam) to help customers protect against network and content level threats.

Video, networking, LTE (Long Term Evolution), cloud computing and virtualisation figured prominently at the NetEvents Asia-Pacific (APAC) Service Provider VIP Summit and the Press Summit at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia hotel in Singapore from 19 to 21 May.

Analysts speak

A connected future is emerging, according to Adeel Najam, industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan.

It will see increasing capacity and capability, with continued improvement in multi-function devices, increased sophistication of specialised devices, higher bandwidth networks planned for both fixed and mobile and higher compression and miniaturisation of consumption platforms.

It will also include changing consumption patterns, with more opportunities for consumption any time, anywhere, including multitasking, while consumers will have greater control over their consumption experience and be at the centre of it.

It will also see more ubiquitous behaviour. Just as flat rate plans have changed user behaviour in the fixed Internet PC world, cheaper mobile tariffs and better handsets will spur ubiquitous data usage in the mobile world.

As that happens, mobile broadband will have to manage its cost per bit to be able to compete when usage exceeds 4 to 5 GB per month and mobile is expected to reach fixed-type usage behaviours in two to three years, based on a study modeled by Cisco.

As it stands, fixed broadband consumption in the developed countries is 10GB per user per month, while in developing countries it's 4GB per user per month, while mobile broadband averages 1.5GB per user per month and the 500MB per user per month for the iPhone.

In two to three years time, the usage of pay-per-use users will average 200MB per month, while those with limited fair-usage data plans will average 1GB per month, and those with fully unlimited plans will average 3 to 5 GB per month.

This will lead to a change in the economics of mobile broadband, with backhaul capacity per provisioned user rising from 3 Kb/s to 40Kb/s per provisioned user at 4 to 5 GB per month, or a 12 to 15 times increase in backhaul capacity to cope with the increased traffic, and it will require more cells, hence base stations in the radio access network to provide the same amount of coverage, given the limited allocated spectrum.

Now the role of wireless broadband varies across the Asia-Pacific region, based upon the percentage of mobile penetration versus broadband penetration.

In the bottom left quadrant are the emerging growth markets, including China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, with relatively low mobile and broadband penetration; here mobile broadband will serve to bridge the digital divide and provide business connectivity.

In the upper left quadrant are the transition markets, including Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, with high mobile penetration, including over 100% but low broadband penetration and here, incumbent inefficiency drives mobile broadband uptake.

Lastly, in the developed markets such as Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Taiwan, mobile broadband serves to enable ubiquitous broadband.

Each of these three market clusters will be driven by different strategies for technology adoption, customer acquisition and competitive differentiation.

Now an emerging technology which will enable better mobile broadband is LTE (Long Term Evolution), a highly evolved form of 3G, capable of over 100Mb/s speeds.

Deployment of LTE networks have already begun this year, the first commercial launches are expected in 2011, with wide-scale deployment in 2012.

Leading cellular mobile operators from both the GSM and CDMA camps across North America, Asia and Europe have already committed to LTE. They include France Telecom, Vodafone, T-Mobile, TIM, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and China Mobile from the GSM camp and Verizon Wireless, Telus, Bell, KDDI, China Unicom and China Telecom form the CDMA camp.

A cloudy future for public cloud?

While the term “cloud computing” is the latest industry buzzword shouted from the rooftops and slavishly parroted by many IT media, especially those in need of some sensation to sell copy or attract eyeballs, Camille Mendler, vice president of Global Service Strategies with the Yankee Group is less than enthusiastic about its future, especially not that of what's called "public cloud."

Advanced Fuel Cell offer quick and simple solution to reduce cost and carbon footprint.

Telecommunications operators today face two major challenges – to reduce overall operating expenses and to deploy more environmentally technologies. Anil Trehan, Chief Technical Officer for Carrier Solutions at Andrew Solutions, explains how Advanced Fuel Cell Solutions can help operators reduce costs and benefit the environment at the same time.

Operating costs have always been a concern for operators with energy bills contributing to more than half of their operating expenditure and many have been exploring solar arrays, wind turbines and fuel cells as alternative energy solutions. These green solutions have high initial costs but offer long-term savings through lower operating and maintenance costs that enable operators to run a sustainable and profitable business. Moreover, their contributions towards the carbon footprint are significantly lower.

Advanced fuel cell (AFC) solutions are designed to overcome the current issues of high maintenance and operational costs of batteries and diesel generators used in backup power solutions.

Field trials conducted around the world in differing climate conditions and power grids of varied quality showed that AFC solutions offer extremely high levels of operational reliability and durability Some test sites faced numerous power outages each day requiring the fuel cell to provide power every day and in such situations, the fuel cells operated with 100 percent availability and provided the requisite power needed to keep the network fully operational. These test sites included ambient temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celcius.

A typical advanced fuel cell solution would comprise of two 8kW fuel cell modules housed in a 63”H x 45”W x 52”D cabinet, which is Telcordia GR-487 compliant. The cabinet contains all necessary power conditioning equipment required to provide regulated DC Voltage to match site requirements, typically at battery float voltage.  The system provides instantaneous power upon loss of AC or DC power utilizing either a small stack of batteries or ultra-capacitors as bridging power. The cabinet is capable of providing 4kW of power up to the total of 16kW in 4kW increments and scalability can be achieved through a series of field retrofit kits.

Hydrogen to the fuel cell cabinet is provided by hydrogen cylinders stored in a Hydrogen Storage Cabinet which has the capacity to store up to 16 standard cylinders.

Microwave networks are quicker to install, secure and best of all, able to sustain high capacity services. John Cole, Product Line Director for Microwave Systems at Andrew Solutions explores how the total cost of ownership, backhaul performance, subscriber experience and in turn the subscriber churn is affected when equipment purchase for the network are determined by price instead of quality.

Microwave backhaul solutions have been known to offer operators multiple benefits. Initial set-up costs aside, microwave backhaul solutions are more cost-effective and economically viable to operate on a long-term basis. However, not all microwave solutions are equal. One must consider the stability of the product and how the antenna patterns will change over time. As such, having the right tools to simulate network situation along with antenna performance will take the guess-work out of the deployment and ultimately, saves money. With these in mind, the quality of the antenna is critical.
Equipment Consideration

Deciding on the type of equipment to make up the network requires the consideration of several factors. Choosing the right site to deploy the network is just the first step. Backhaul engineers should ideally be involved in the early stages of planning to ensure the likelihood of securing a backhaul friendly site. Factors such as the customer base and available capital also play a part in deciding the type of equipment to be purchased but ultimately the type of microwave radio equipment chosen will also be dependent on the type of service provided.

When choosing antennas, operators should consider opting for the more superior and spectrum efficient models. Less expensive models pose several issues – they impact both the amount of time dedicated to the network design and the costs associated with acquiring additional spectrum. In the long run, spectrum inefficiency will naturally impede the future growth of any network. For networks that operate on higher frequencies, the reduction of the fade margin due to threshold degradation means that potential link lengths will be reduced in order to meet network objectives.

Higher quality antennas generally offer greater spectrum efficiency, longer link lengths and even smaller footprint, if required. Optimising the spectrum used to deploy a backhaul network impacts cost in a big way especially when considering the investment required when needed to add more capacity in future to support LTE/4G networks. Longer link lengths help to reduce the amount of backhaul equipment required. The size of an antenna affects overall expenditure dramatically. Smaller but highly efficient antennas enable operators to reduce freight costs, the space required on a tower and warehouse space.

It is critical then, to consider the performance requirements of you network and choosing a lower cost antenna solution may be costly in the long run. For example, if nearly 30% of the network does not meet the objectives with the inefficient antennas, the cost of replacing the antennas can drive cost up by as much as 32%. This means that if you spend US$50m on antennas then you are overspending by approximately US$16m.

John Cole will be one of the speakers at this year’s CommunicAsia 2010 and he will be touching on how antenna performance in the short and long term can help to maximize spectrum allocation. He will be using a real microwave backhaul network to demonstrate the implications of antenna and planning tool choices on overall revenue.

Mobile network operators constantly seek to find new and innovative ways to differentiate themselves from their competition and to increase profit margins. Martin Dawson, Director of the GeoLENs Location Server Business Unit at Andrew Solutions explains how the new generation of IP location service protocols can benefit operators, users, device makers and application providers alike.

Cellular networks have long been enabled to locate devices wherever they are attached to allow end users to obtain location information on emergency services and value-added applications. However the technical architecture and business models applied to mobile networks have been slanted toward supporting operator-controlled applications alone as opposed to the model of user-controlled applications that have emerged as a result of mobile computing platforms like the iPhone, iPad and other Android equipped devices.

Many devices come equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) services. However, GPS is often slow and unreliable. Cell towers and WiFi access points tend to provide stronger signals that do not suffer from the same occlusion that troubles low power GPS signals. Often a survey that records accurate ground-truth locations that help to administer base map data and point-of-interest data such as restaurants, banks and nightclubs, is conducted to create a database that maps location to visible radio signal sources. Most Android devices have an operating system that provides an Application Programming Interface (API) which allows the device’s network adapters to scan for cell towers and WiFi sources and reaches out through the internet to Google’s “world in a database” (WiDB) system as a substitute for GPS. Companies like

Skyhook Wireless and Google have been forerunners in bridging the gap that opened up when older cellular location service models were unable to support the demands of end-device controlled services. However, this is set to change with the new generation of HTTP Enabled Location Delivery (HELD) protocols that allow any device to query networks for its location. HELD is an IP standard that will enable any networkable computing device, wired or mobile to query the network for a location regardless of the nature of the network – broadband DSL, enterprise LAN or mobile 3G.

With the new HELD protocols, the network operator’s coverage is by definition wherever the user is able to attach to the network; the operator can then ensure that the location service is available everywhere the network is, thus allowing network operators to provide more than just emergency calling services. The new generation of internet location-service architectures and protocols essentially puts network operators back into location based services value chain that they have long been cut out of.

Martin Dawson will be speaking at CommunicAsia 2010 on how the new generation of IP location service protocols fit into the new paradigm of location services and how they affect the business model for telecommunication network operators.

Jalur Lebar Nasional (JALENAS) Sdn Bhd of Malaysia and Maipu Communication Technology Co. Ltd. (MAIPU) of Sichuan province, China jointly announced a strategic partnership on 26 April in Kuala Lumpur.

This deal follows the signing of a Joint Action Plan on Malaysia-China Strategic Cooperation between the China and Malaysia governments, following Malaysia's Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak's visit to China some months ago.

The signing of this partnership agreement was witnessed by Dato’ Sri Adnan Hj. Yaakob, Chief Minister of Pahang State, Malaysia and  Mr. Jian Jufeng ,Governor of Sichuan Province, China.

MAIPU is a professional supplier of IP network equipment and application solutions. Its products comprise a full range of routers, switches, VoIP communications, security and integrated access equipment, all of which are used in over 30 countries. It's a main network equipment supplier of telecoms operators, financial institutions, and government departments in China.

MAIPU's engineers will help accelerate deployment of  JALENAS' open-access fibre broadband network, in Kuantan, Pahang state, which is due for completion by the end of the year. Following that,  it will participate in the deployment of the JALENAS city network in Johor Bahru, Johor state.

The NetEvents Asia Pacific Service Provider VIP Summit in Singapore last November was an opportunity for service providers and telecommunication professionals to share their experiences and ideas with industry peers, discuss advances in telecommunications technologies, the viability of new telecommunication business models and potential for collaboration.

Immediately following that, the UK-based Net Events International also held the Asia Pacific Press Summit where these industry professionals and experts presented their findings, opinions and experiennces to members of the information and communications technology media from across the region.

“The year 2009 has been a challenging for the industry, as telecom revenues have slowed with operators worldwide having cut capital expenditure for 2009,” said Ted Dean, president and managing director of BDA China in his opening keynote address. BDA advises investors in the telecommunications, media and technology sectors in China and India, as well as other high-growth segments.

Planned investments by major carries in Europe were down by as much as 34% in 2009 over 2008, in Latin America down by as much as 25% and by as much as 3% down in Japan. However, recovery and opportunity are on the horizon, especially in emerging markets, in wireless and in services & applications.

“However, the Asia Pacific was the fastest growing in terms of capital expenditure and wireless services and the only region which has been growing,” said Dean.

The Asia Pacific (APAC) accounted for 41% of all capital expenditure (CapEx) in 2008 compared to 29% in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, 8% in Latin America (LatAm) and 22% elsewhere. CapEx in the Asia pacific grew by 16.2% in 2008, followed by 10.7% in LatAm and and 9% in EMEA, while it ws down by 3.8% elsewhere.

Also, only APAC experienced year-on-year growth in wireless sales across five consecutive quarters from Q1 2008 through Q1 2009, while EMEA was mostly down by as much as 10% in a quarter, while growth in sales in LatAm went progressively down from strong growth of around 50% in Q1 2008 to a drop of around 50% in Q1 2009, while sales were down in all of these five quarters and by as much as over 20% in Q2 2008.

The shining stars were China and India, which respectively added between 7 and 10,5 million and between 7.8 and 15.6 mobile subscribers each month from July 2007 to Septembet 2009 despite the economic crisis and the bankruptcy  of Lehman Brothers in September, 2008.

In a particular case. growth in China Mobile's revenue in China slowed but remained positive and grew by 8.9% from 195.5 billion yuan overall in the first half of 2008  to 212.9 billion yuan in the first half of 2009.

The mobile industry is undergoing a paradigm shift caused by the explosion of always-connected devices with thousands of consumer and enterprise applications based on 3G & 4G technologies.

This changes user behaviour and mobile broadband expectations, thus causing a shift from operator-driven to a services-driven business models.

Findings by 3G Americas show that mobile voice traffic worldwide has doubled between March, 2007 and May, 2009, while in the same period, packet data traffic has increased by 18 times.

According to an IDC report of February, 2010 sponsored by Juniper Networks, this trend is due to several factors.

One of them is that at the time there were a total of 570 3G networks of either Wideband CDMA or CDMA2000 technologies worldwide and the resultant economies of scale has resulted in declining device and service costs, which is a key factor which has resulted in an accelerated pace of 3G service uptake, especially during the preceding 12 to 18 months.

The first driver was the growth in the number of notebook and netbook PCs with mobile broadband connectivity to the Internet, with the pressure these bandwidth-hungry users put on the network rising exponentially.

On average, a typical 2G or 2.5G handset user would would consume tens of megabytes per month but the typical netbook or notebook user would consume from two to three gigabytes per month and this is expected to increase even further with higher bandwidth, fourth-generation technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE).

Smartphones

Adding to that is the growth in the number of smartphones, which already consume 300 MB per month and growing. However, while individually each smartphone consumers less than a PC, their greater numbers put pressure on networks.

According to IDC, sales of smartphones in the last quarter of 2009 was up 39% year-on-year  and grew by 15% overall in 2009, while the market for all devices grew 11% in the fourth quarter, 2009 and actually declined 5% over the whole year. So the general trend is towards use of data intensive phones such as the Apple iPhone, the BlackBerry and new products such as the Motorola Droid.

While mobile data services are hardly new, most of them have largely been business applications such as e-mail which involve relatively small volumes of data, which most networks have so far been able to cope with.

However, the introduction of mobile smartphones such as the Apple iPhone and its imitators which have followed, have enabled consumers to easily access high-volume content and applications such as streaming videos, upload and download music, video and other bulky content which have put a strain on the capacities of cellular networks.

During the time when voice was the primary use of cellular communications, revenue tended to rise in tandem with traffic, while remaining ahead of costs but now, especially with flat rate data plans and the increased use of data, revenue growth has been minimal, while costs continue to rise along with traffic volume, putting pressure on operators to increase their network capacity at considerable cost, with little  expected return-on-investment (RoI).

However, Alcatel-Lucent believes its zero touch photonics, packet optical transport, microwave packet radio and intelligent optical core solutions can help operators keep costs below revenues despite growing traffic.

Much of the data flowing through current networks is relatively trivial and time-insensitive and current fibre switching and routing equipment using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) are useful but not very flexible and involve high operating costs since they require manual intervention to re-configure and scale up.

“However, zero touch photonics lets the equipment  be re-configured centrally from the network operations centre and to re-route traffic automatically in case a fibre is cut,” said Nicolas Almendro, vice-president, Alcatel-Lucent, Asia-Pacific Optics Competence Centre.

Over the last 20 years, optical transport has employed the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) multiplexing protocol which was designed to carry time-division multiplexed (TDM) traffic which is a legacy of the voice days and hence more suitable for voice traffic.

TDM was developed to optimise use especially of long distance links by carrying digitised slices of voice in dedicated time slots within the connection. GSM phones also employ TDM to enable up to eight phones to use a single carrier frequency at the same time.

However, with today's burgeoning growth in data, SDH is faced with problems of scalability to be able to cope.

Alcatel-Lucent's solution for this is to use Transport – Multi-Protocol Label Switching (T-MPLS) designed by standards bodies to provide packet optical transport with the same security, operational administration and maintenance as SDH but optimised for data.