Our mobile devices are advanced pieces of technology.
And they have many different ways to connect themselves
to the outside world.
One of the most common ways to connect our mobile phones
is through a cellular network.
This would be our mobile devices, such as our cell
phones, being able to communicate over
this wireless network that's separated
into different segments called cells.
We have an antenna inside of our mobile device,
and it's able to communicate to the antennas that
may be in our local area.
There are a number of security concerns with this.
One is that you're able to find a particular device that's
on one of these mobile networks and track exactly
where this device may be going.
There's also worldwide access now to this mobile device
that's always on and always connected
to this cellular network.
Another common way to connect our mobile device
is over a local Wi-Fi network.
This is our 802.11 wireless networks
that we might have in our home or our office.
It obviously would have exactly the same security concerns
as any other device on that Wi-Fi network,
so we have to be sure that any data that we're sending
back and forth is encrypted.
If we're not using an encrypted channel,
or the encrypted channel is not using the proper protocols,
then it is possible for someone to sit
in the middle of the conversation
and see all of the traffic going to and from our mobile device.
And since the Wi-Fi network is using a particular set
of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequencies, it
is also susceptible to frequency interference and denial
of service.
Some mobile devices can use satellite communications,
or satcom.
This is perfect for locations that
don't have an existing wireless network or cellular network,
especially if it's a place that might
be in the middle of a natural disaster,
or in a very remote area.
Instead of using the local cellular network,
you instead would use satellite communication.
There are many different technologies
that use this satellite communication.
Some will use a connection to a geostationary satellite,
whereas others will connect to satellites
that are rotating around the Earth in a low Earth orbit.
Because this is using digital communication,
you can send both voice and data over these satcom networks.
These satcom devices have similar security concerns
to our traditional mobile phones.
There are operating system vulnerabilities and remote code
executions you have to be concerned about.
So it's always important to keep all
of the software on these devices updated to the latest version.
Another common type of mobile device networking
is near field communication, or NFC.
NFC is commonly used when you're communicating
from your mobile device to a device that's
very close by, thus the name near field in the near field
communication.
We often see this used for payment systems.
You might be in a store and ready to check out,
and you can move your phone very close to the payment terminal,
and it acts as if you were using a credit card.
NFC can also be used to help with other wireless
technologies.
For example, NFC can be used to help the pairing
process for Bluetooth between a mobile device and an accessory.
And NFC can often be used as an identity
system, where you can identify yourself using your phone.
NFC is usually configured to be relatively secure,
but there are some security concerns
you should be aware of.
One is that this is a wireless communication.
And although it is a very narrow range of communication,
someone with an antenna can still
listen in on the communication and capture that data.
Usually, you're not going to be able to hear
very much once you get outside of a 10 meter range
around your phone.
There's also the concern of frequency jamming.
Someone could prevent you from using this NFC by jamming
the frequencies in use and not allowing anything
to go back and forth between your mobile device
and the other party.
There might also be a concern of a replay or relay attack.
A man in the middle could be used if there
was non-encrypted data.
And if the NFC was not configured properly,
that could certainly be a security issue.
And of course, if you lose your device,
then someone else could gain access to that phone
and potentially use that NFC instead of you.
A relatively new type of mobile device network communication is
ANT or ANT+.
This is a wireless sensor protocol
that uses a part of the 2.4 GHz range
that is reserved for industrial, scientific, and medical or ISM.
We're commonly seeing ANT and ANT+ being used on the Internet
of Things devices.
This could be something like a fitness device or heart rate
monitor.
ANT is not 802.11.
It's not Bluetooth.
It's its own set of protocols specifically designed
for these low power devices.
Like any other wireless, device there
is the potential here for jamming or denial of service,
especially on this very busy 2.4 GHz band.
And because encryption is optional in this ANT protocol,
it is possible for someone to be able to capture this data
and see information inside of that data stream.
Another networking feature built into a number
of our mobile devices is infrared or IR.
Although in the past we've seen infrared
used for things like printing, these days
we see it used on smartphone, tablets, and smartwatches
to be able to control infrared devices,
like your entertainment center.
You could also use these infrared links
to do file transfers between mobile devices.
And anything that might be infrared accessible
could be controlled using this infrared capability
on your mobile device.
And one of the most common connections
on our mobile devices is through a USB, or Universal Serial Bus.
This is a physical wired connection
on our mobile devices.
We usually are connecting our computer
to our mobile device with USB.
And it might also take a form of a Lightning
or some type of proprietary connector on your phone.
USB is relatively more secure than some wireless protocols,
because you need physical access to the device
to be able to plug in that USB connection.
A locked device is also relatively secure,
because most devices will not allow communication over USB
unless the device is unlocked.
Mobile phones can also connect via USB
and appear as a removable storage device.
So security professionals have to be very aware of people
using their mobile device to exfiltrate data outside
of your local network.