With the growing usage of mobile devices, enterprises in India have become more prone to security risks. Kartik Sahani, regional director, India, McAfee shares his views on the emerging threats to mobile security and McAfee's recent initiatives.

What are the emerging trends in the mobile security market?

Mobile devices are now considered to be an important source for threats. Almost 50 million people in India use smart phones and almost 2 million people are joining this club every month. A mobile phone is turning into a full-blown computer. This makes them susceptible to the very same vulnerabilities as that of a computer like virus, spam and spyware. While the increasing number of mobile device users has given rise to a market for third-party applications such as games and other mobile applications, it has also opened up opportunities for malicious use. Less than 10% of phone owners in India actually use their phones for more than messaging and making calls. However, about 60% of phone users would like to use advanced features in their phones.

In the overall mobile security market, where does India stand?

Although it is difficult to estimate the worth of the mobile security market in India, it would be right to understand that the market potential is on the rise. The market for high-end mobile phones is booming and security is a function of this boom itself. The global market for secure content management was $ 59.24 million in 2005 and is expected to grow to $ 513.93 million by 2008. Several security software companies have released packages for mobile phones and corporate telephony departments. As the capabilities of smart phones increase, it is ever more important for enterprises to protect themselves from the growing security threat these devices can pose.

How important is it to frame a mobile enterprise strategy?

As the usage of mobile devices starting from notebooks to smart phones are growing up, the threats to the organisations are also increasing. With this environment, framing up a mobile enterprise strategy solely depends upon the organisation and the level of secured data the organisation is handling. The ratio of risks and threats should be taken into consideration while making any decision regarding the security policy for any organisation. In some organisations, business critical applications server needs to be protected and not the CEO desktop. So according to the level of security and threats, the organisations should invest in their security solutions.

How will McAfee VirusScan Entreprise version 8.5i help the kiosks user community?

As more companies with remote kiosks, point-of-sale terminals and ATMs move away from proprietary operating platforms to the Windows XP Embedded (XPE) platform, their exposure to the many threats that affect the Windows platform increase greatly. Point-of-sale systems are critical to most business processes and organisations must protect customer information so they can increase revenues, accelerate transactions, enhance services, and comply with regulatory requirements.

McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i, an upgraded version of VirusScan Enterprise 8.5, now supports the Windows XP Embedded operating system. By expanding its proven and reliable anti-malware protection to Windows XPE, organisations can now manage security on point-of-sale terminals, including airline kiosks and ATMs. VirusScan Enterprise uses a number of mechanisms to protect endpoints from being altered, including disabling end users from making changes, enforcing scanning policies, and locking down the software from malicious changes. Since malware protection is only as good as its latest update, the McAfee VirusScan Enterprise database is updated daily with information from McAfee Avert Labs.

Tell us about your tie up with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)?

We have tied up with CERT-IN to provide and support the government through our global expertise in security segment. We have teams known as AVERT (Antivirus Emergency Response Team) in various countries which have in depth knowledge and experience in the malware, phishing and antivirus areas and we will leverage this experience here in India and will help the department to resolve security related issues. We will also work with the government in creating security awareness and will provide best practices for various systems and networks by publishing advisories, guidelines and other technical documents.