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<concept id="GUID-68BBBA98-BDF7-4562-8168-5E90C73ADCF8" xml:lang="en"><title>Device

security</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>The superior mobility and connectivity of mobile devices constitutes

their greatest threat, and allows intruders to try different attack methods

against the device. The figure below illustrates the most common methods of

attack against mobile devices.</p>

<fig id="GUID-2839B915-A025-4404-96A8-B9354F9E5A9F"><title>Mobile device and common attack methods</title><image href="GUID-A9E610B7-505C-41C4-9079-BC83C094982E_d0e12153_href.png"/></fig>

<p>Due to the nature of mobile devices, including the potential vulnerabilities

mentioned above, you should consider the following points when designing your

application:</p>

<ul>

<li><p>If a mobile device is lost or stolen, confidential information

(for example, calendar and contacts) can be read even by those with little

expertise.</p></li>

<li><p>Users can access confidential information and files at any

time, including reverse engineering of software and algorithms.</p></li>

<li><p>Data can be transferred from and to the mobile device through

different methods, even accidentally. </p></li>

<li><p>Users may detach removable media or the battery at any time,

which can cause data loss or corruption.</p></li>

</ul>

<p>When you handle confidential information in your application, remember

that with sufficient motivation and resources there are always ways to extract

information from a mobile device. As the level of software security improves

and attacks become less practical, interest in hardware attacks may in turn

increase.</p>

<p>In the continuously evolving digital world, every application should

have a certain level of robustness against a changing and hostile environment.

Applications should be prepared for data corruption and alteration, network

and storage blackouts, plug-ins and components that misbehave, malicious attackers,

and, perhaps most importantly, user errors.</p>

<p>The Symbian <xref href="GUID-4BFEDD79-9502-526A-BA7B-97550A6F0601.dita">platform

security</xref> architecture is designed to protect mobile devices and their

contents.</p>

<p>For more details, see <xref href="GUID-9058F379-C495-4B22-B270-FF6A80E450B8.dita">Device

security mechanisms</xref>.</p>