2GB Telstra Get AFL Rights + Today Show – Smartphone Anti Virus Protection

On 2GB this weekend Luke and I spoke to J-B Rousselot, who is the executive director of Media at Telstra and about what people can expect from the service now that Telstra won the rights to stream video of AFL games from 2012 on your Telstra mobile or slater computer like a Galaxy Tab or iPad. You can also stream it across your desktop, via the T-box, or through your television. You can listen to the interview, and show, here.

I spoke with Lisa on the Today Show about the number of smartphones that are open to malware – with a recent survey showing that only six percent of users handset have any sort of protection on their phones. We looked at a few smartphones to see what they had to offer, although a couple of them do have what we call a closed system.

iPhone

  • As long as it is not jail-broken by user, it will be fine.
  • All apps run in a safe environment, so a website or app can’t access data from other apps.
  • iOS 4 supports encrypted network communication to protect your sensitive information.
  • To guard privacy, apps requesting location information must get your permission first.
  • You can set a passcode lock to prevent unauthorised access to your phone.
  • You can configure iPhone to delete all your data after too many unsuccessful passcode attempts.
  • If lost or stolen, Find My iPhone allows you to locate it on a map, lock its screen, and remotely delete all your data.
  • If you get it back, you can restore everything from your last backup.

Android

  • Norton Everywhere for Android
  • Locate and remotely wipe data
  • Lock their lost or stolen Android phones with a quick text message.
  • Consumers can currently download a free limited-trial beta version directly from the Android Market.
  • Lookout’s for Mobile, which is also for Android
  • Phone tracker app uses your GPS to track your phone’s location.
  • If mobile is lost or stolen, you can log in to MyLookout.com to find your phone.
  • You can also set off the screaming alarm designed to annoy your phone’s thief enough to abandon it.
  • You can remotely wipe or lock the phone.
  • MyLookout website allows you to initiate a backup and restore, run a security scan.
  • The logs are quite detailed: for example, the app scan log will tell you how many apps were searched.

Blackberry

  • BlackBerry Protect, a new application that allows BlackBerry users to wirelessly backup, restore and locate their BlackBerry,
  • Remote device wipe
  • Remote device lock
  • Remote activation of a “Lost and Found” home screen
  • Locate device on a map
  • Remote activation of the BlackBerry smartphone loud ringer
  • Wireless device backup and restore

Five Tips

  • Use a PIN or password – a PIN should be required to access your home screen.
  • Keep it up to date – make sure you are running the latest version of security updates.
  • Be careful with apps –only download apps from the official app stores.
  • Turn off Wifi and Bluetooth – Hackers can use wifi and bluetooth to gain remote access to smartphone. When you do use Wifi make sure it is on an encrypted network.
  • Backup your data –  sometimes the only way to remove a virus is to wipe the handset’s memory. Do regular back ups via your PC so data is not lost forever.