Modern smartphones are vastly more capable than early PCs. For some people, the phone replaces a desktop or laptop PC altogether. Given the quantity of personal information now stored in this pint-sized easily-lost package, security protection is essential.
Security tools for smartphones don't break down as easily into categories as those for PCs. You might find products offering antivirus and antitheft, antitheft and parental monitoring, or parental monitoring and call blocking. That's great, in a way. You can pick and choose the feature set you want by choosing the right product. PCMag has plans in progress for full testing-based reviews of mobile security tools. Until those plans come to fruition, we're busy researching what features each tool offers, and what platforms it supports. Here's a non-exhaustive look at mobile security products we've found interesting enough to slate for review.
Basic Security
For PC security, antivirus is the most essential security component, because PC-targeted malware is rampant. Mobile viruses do exist, but they're not nearly as prevalent. The biggest threat to a mobile device is loss or theft, so many mobile products offer features to locate and recover a lost or stolen phone. Typically they also include the ability to lock the phone and, if the phone can't be recovered, wipe out all private data.
Lookout Mobile Security ($29.99/year direct) and NetQin Mobile Anti-virus for BlackBerry v4.0 (Free) offer antitheft and antivirus, along with backup of essential data. Both can sound an audible alarm on receiving a special text code. Lookout also scans installed apps and reports any privacy issues.
Norton Mobile Security for Android 1.5 beta (Free), Trend Micro Mobile Security for Android ($3.99 direct), and Webroot Mobile Security for Android ($14.99/year direct) also offer antitheft and antivirus, and they add blocking of unwanted calls and texts. Trend adds a modicum of parental control. Webroot analyzes the apps on your phone and reports on possible privacy breaches. Norton extends the usual antitheft features with SIM card locking.
BullGuard Mobile Security 10 ($29.95 direct) may be the most complete of this lot. It has elements of almost all typical security suite components, though most aren't as powerful as their PC-based equivalents. BullGuard offers antivirus and antitheft, naturally, as well as parental monitoring and limited parental control. It backs up contacts and calender, blocks unwanted calls and texts, and even includes a kind of firewall.
Parental Control and Monitoring
Parents are giving fancy smartphones to younger and younger kids. Kids lose things, so a utility that offers antitheft is surely a good start. Some mobile utilities offer specific parental control and monitoring features similar to those found in PC-based parental control systems, as well as some very interesting mobile-specific features.
eBlaster Mobile for Android ($69.95/year direct) doesn't attempt to control what kids do with their phones, but it logs texts, voice calls, photos, and web sites visited. It actually records voice conversations, and its log of text conversations isn't affected by clearing texts from the phone. It also uses the phone's own location services to log where the child has been.
iHound Mobile Phone and Family Tracker ($3.99/year direct) takes location services even further with a "geo-fencing" feature. If the kids aren't at school during school hours, for example, parents can get an alert. It also includes remote lock and wipe, in case the phone is stolen.
PhoneSheriff ($49.97 direct) offers remote lock and wipe too, and logs just about everything: calls, texts, photos, Web sites visited, email correspondents, and more. It also has a very comprehensive set of parental control features. It can block inappropriate Web sites, set a schedule for when phone use is allowed, block specific apps, and limit access to phone functions. In addition it can block calls and texts to or from specific numbers.
The Geo-Zones feature in CellSafety 2.0 ($9.99/month direct) is similar to iHound's geo-fencing, but it's not time-specific. Parents can get an alert any time the child moves into or out of a specified zone. CellSafety will alert parents when it detects sexting, pedophile activity, cyberbullying, suicide talk, gun talk, or texts about drugs. Parents can configure it to block calls or text to or from unwanted contacts, and it will even block texting whiel driving.
K9 Web Protection Browser for iOS (Free) is the simplest of this lot. It simply blocks access to web sites in various undesirable categories.
Call Control
You can't always tell who's calling on a mobile phone, and the calls you don't want to take definitely won't identify themselves. Mr. Number (Free) and PrivacyStar ($2.99/month direct) both use "crowdsourcing" to provide Caller ID even when the caller has blocked normal Caller ID. They get their data from other users. In fact, Mr. Number is free only if you opt in to providing caller information.
Both products can block telemarketing and other "spam" calls. PrivacyStar actually has a relationship with the FTC; its users can register a complaint against a specific caller. You can use either product for a reverse directory listing; enter a phone number and find out the name of its owner.
Mr. Number includes IM-style real-time status information. Friends who also use Mr. Number can see your status, and it can automatically direct calls to voicemail if you're busy. PrivacyStar doesn't assume your friends are also its customers. If you configure it to send all calls to voicemail it can send back a text letting the friend know what it did.
Other Tools
A few of the mobile security products I've surveyed don't fit easily into any category. Users of ProtectedSMS ($49.95 direct) can send encrypted texts to other users of the program. After an initial verification step, sending an encrypted text is just as easy as sending an ordinary, non-secure text. Texts don't go through a third-party gateway. Rather, encryption and decryption happens right on the mobile device.
WISeID Personal Data Protector V2.3 (Free) is only partially a security tool. It stores a wide variety of information, including passwords for Web sites, credit card details, and other sensitive information. You can even use it to snap pictures and enter details about valuables in your home, for insurance purposes.
The chart below summarizes the feature types found in each of the mobile security products mentioned here.
