Nightmares with Mobile Devices are Just around the Corner!

Mobile computing devices (MCDs) such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones, handheld personal computers, and tablet PCs, are proliferating in the marketplace. As MCDs become more powerful and commonplace with ubiquitous connectivity, the line that currently divides these handheld devices from typical network computers will become very unclear. Bluetooth, WiFi, and cellular technologies interconnect mobile devices with other computing devices and represent vectors into the device that may be exploited by malicious persons. A malicious person can theoretically take complete control of a mobile device via wireless and use it for all kinds of illicit purposes. While some malicious codes have been reported in the literature for these devices, it is only a matter of time before these codes become as common on mobile devices as they are on desktop computers. Most people have had an experience with a virus on their desktop PC, but have not had the same experience on their smart phone. This will change. The INL is conducting research into MCD vulnerabilities and countermeasures and has developed a Web-based client server application for tracking this data. These efforts are described in this paper.