Vitamin C for Your Smartphone

How a digital immune system helps protect your mobile phone

There are more than 5 billion mobile phones in use worldwide. A growing number are connected to the internet. These smartphones are becoming an increasing target for cyber-attacks. In an ideal world the device itself would recognize attacks and sound the alarm. The SKIMS project is working on developing a cooperative immune system for mobile phones.

Unauthorized external connections and malicious apps are two ways smartphones can be compromised. SKIMS is pursuing a comprehensive new security concept. It harnesses novel technologies to allow the mobile phone to detect security-critical events and act to neutralize them, drawing surrounding devices in for assistance as needed. SKIMS is developing mechanisms to maintain this detection and defensive barrier: Incoming viruses are diagnosed through a light-weight entropy procedure and a mobile Honeypot. An integration check at run-time prevents the smartphone from opening unauthorized apps. Novel socio-technical approaches identify trustworthy neighbours to allow the phone to establish spontaneous secure communication channels.

Please visit us:

• March 06 - 10, 2012
• CeBIT, Hannover, Germany
• Hall 26, booth E50