Home Secretary Welcomes Mobile Phone Industry's Ongoing Commitment to Handset Security

New Security Recommendations From OMTP Raise the Bar For Mobile Phone Security

LONDON, May 22/PRNewswire/ -- Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today welcomed the release of the
Advanced Trusted Environment recommendations document from the mobile
industry's device requirements body, OMTP. This will lead to enhancements in
the underlying security of mobile phones over the next few years and are the
results of two years' worth of effort by the major players in the mobile
phone industry.

In welcoming the recommendation, the Home Secretary stated "I
am pleased that the mobile industry continues to show its commitment to
enhance the security of mobile phones and in particular that a key part of
the OMTP requirements is increasing hardware security so that hackers cannot
profit from stolen phones by changing their unique identity."

The requirements are contained in a 200 page recommendation
entitled 'Advanced Trusted Environment: OMTP TR1'. This publication and its
companion document 'Security Threats on Embedded Consumer Devices' are the
latest in a series of initiatives taken by industry over the past few years
aimed at ensuring the security in mobile phones remains resistant to
tampering and exploitation by hackers.

The recommendation looks at a number of key areas to protect
mobile devices as they begin to support such features as pay-per-view TV and
mobile commerce transactions. Also included are enhancements to existing
hardware security in phones, providing the underpinnings to key virus and
malware protection in phones provided by an Application Security Framework.
To achieve this, the document outlines a series of tools and mechanisms
designed to enhance current security processes in technical areas such as:
Secure Data Storage for protecting sensitive information, Trusted Execution
Environments for isolating and protecting sensitive software, Flexible Secure
Boot and Runtime Integrity Checking for detecting whether the device has been
tampered with, and Secure User Input / Output to ensure the integrity of data
on user interfaces.

Detective Superintendent Mick McNally, head of the National
Mobile Phone Crime unit said that "Technology is increasing at an incredible
rate. We need to ensure that the incentives for people to steal mobile phones
are taken away. This is a continual process and the National Mobile Phone
Crime Unit will continue to work closely with industry on ensuring that
future technologies such as m-commerce are secured against future threats."

Jack Wraith, the Chairman of the Mobile Industry Crime Action
Forum said "I am encouraged by the work of the OMTP and its support to ensure
that customers using mobile devices can continue to do so in a secure and
safe environment. MICAF has over the last five years worked closely with all
parties to improve the security standards of mobile phones and in particular
have put in place processes and procedures to ensure that when a phone is
stolen and reported to a customer's home network it is blocked so that it is
no longer of any use to a thief. These enhanced security standards will go a
long way to ensure we stay a step ahead of the people out there who are
consistently trying to circumvent the security processes and procedures in
place and allow us to maintain the robustness and integrity of the mobile
handset for some years to come."

Professor Michael Walker FREng, Director of Vodafone Group Research and
Development said: "Vodafone is committed to delivering reliable and secure
services to our customers as well as protecting them from mobile phone crime,
and we are pleased to back the OMTP in rolling out greater levels of security
across the industry. We have actively supported the new OMTP recommendations
for hardening mobile phones against potential hacking threats and for
securing new mobile services such as mobile TV and payments, and look forward
to the widespread adoption of these recommendations in mobile devices."

Sir David Brown, Chairman of Motorola Ltd stated that
"Motorola welcomes the operator aligned handset security requirements that
TR1 represents. We see it as essential that manufacturers work with industry
organisations such as OMTP to ensure security standards keep pace with the
evolving functionality of our devices. As operator and consumer take up of
m-commerce and multimedia initiatives increase there will be an ever greater
need for protection of our customers' data and services."

Notes to editors:

About OMTP

OMTP is a forum funded by companies from across the mobile
phone value chain, set up with the aim of simplifying the customer experience
of mobile data services. OMTP is backed by many of the largest mobile
operators and serves the needs of every link in the mobile phone value chain
by gathering and driving mobile terminal requirements. The group defines
requirements that enable mobile devices to have a standardized application
interface and consistent user experience across multiple devices. OMTP
recommendations benefit carriers, content providers, middleware vendors and
handset manufacturers to develop open and compatible mobile devices. For more
information, visit http://www.omtp.org.

The recommendations are available at
http://www.omtp.org/publications.html.

For further information regarding the OMTP, please contact:
Sarah Bedwell
MUSTARD PR
Tel. +44-1628-502601
E-mail: sarah@mustardpr.com

Source: OMTP Ltd

For further information regarding the OMTP, please contact: Sarah Bedwell, MUSTARD PR, Tel. +44-1628-502601, E-mail: sarah@mustardpr.com

2008-05-21 20:02:11 0368332 PRNEWSWIRE