South Africa`s mobile operators can help their subscribers to protect themselves and their children from mobile viruses, malware, inappropriate content, spam, unwanted communications and other threats by introducing SMS, MMS and e-mail filtering solutions to their networks.
That`s according to Donovan Mooney, product manager at SecureData Security. He says that recent incidents where young subscribers have been exposed to danger through their interactions with strangers on the Mxit network highlights the important role that mobile operators have to play in protecting their customers from risks on their networks.
"Under-18s form one of the largest growth markets for South African mobile operators, who are increasingly expected to protect young and vulnerable users from dangers such as predatory strangers lurking in Mxit chatrooms, bullying via SMS, MMS and e-mail, and inappropriate adult content," says Mooney.
"Operators that put infrastructure in place to protect their subscribers from unauthorised, illegal and harmful material show that they are taking the risks their customers face seriously, and can hence build revenues, loyalty and the value of the network."
The solutions that mobile operators should be looking at to protect their users include policy-based filtering solutions that stretch across all of their services (including SMS, MMS and e-mail), all forms of access (cellular, WiFi, WiMax), and all media (including mobile Internet, text, images, music, voice and video).
These solutions allow mobile networks to identify new risks - including mobile viruses, denial of service, spam and fraudulent phishing attacks - and respond quickly to protect network assets and subscriber privacy, Mooney says.
Operators can approach the introduction of these solutions as a business opportunity. Some of these solutions can be deployed as a value-added service that can be sold to subscribers. Using these filtering solutions, operators can allow parents to set and manage their own acceptable use policies to ensure correct and controlled mobile data usage by their children.
"These tools empower parents to make their own decisions about how their children use their cellphones," says Mooney. "Parents are able to determine who can call or be called from a child`s phone, who can send and receive SMS and MMS messages, what categories of Web content the phone can access, what time of day can services be used, and more."
In practice, parents can set up anti-bullying blacklists, prevent curious children from accessing adult content, and stop messages such as requests for meetings from strangers from reaching their children. These controls are combined with notification services and offer parents the peace of mind they need to allow their children to freely use mobile services.
Concludes Mooney: "Operators have a strong vested interest in protecting the safety and privacy of their subscribers, especially the young and vulnerable. By taking proactive steps, they may be able to ward off further government regulation.
"They will also be able to build trust and loyalty among their subscribers and encourage use of data services by protecting users from information security risks. There are also opportunities for them to drive revenue growth by offering value-added security services to customers who want or need them."
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SecureData is a specialist, value-added distributor of perimeter, application, network, endpoint, storage and identity information security solutions and risk management solutions for the African sub-continent and Indian Ocean islands. A cross-section of the available solutions from SecureData illustrates wide coverage of the following information security and risk management domains: business continuity, security appliances and devices, hardware authentication, identity and access management, security and vulnerability management, secure content management, threat management and security services. SecureData`s information security and risk management solutions include best-of-breed solutions, devices and appliances for the perimeter, data centres, applications, network, endpoints, messaging and Web. In addition, as a value-add to vendor, channel and customer, SecureData also provides a full complement of support, pre-sales and professional services around the solutions positioned in each discrete security vertical.
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