A SIM-based authentication service from Orange and SAP’s beefed-up product to protect mobile messaging were among the big announcements in the security space at last week’s Mobile World Congress.
Mobile Connect is Orange’s new method of letting consumers log into any digital service, regardless of the device or the connection used, using a personal code or click-validation process.
The product is fully integrated into the device and customer information is not shared with third parties or Orange itself, the operator said.
According to Orange, the product could be used by the likes of the healthcare, banking and government sectors to provide a secure method of access, as well as consumers juggling a range of passwords for different websites and services. It will roll out Mobile Connect across its European markets and key markets in Africa and the Middle East by 2015.
Stéphane Richard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orange, said: “Mobile Connect is an easy, secure and universal solution for customers to connect to all digital services. It is for Orange an opportunity to show its capacity to innovate with simple services while improving personal data protection.”
The project is part of the GSMA’s Personal Data Initiative, which aims to put operators at the centre of who consumers can trust with their identity online.
Orange, the GSMA and French security company Morpho will trial Mobile Connect with Catalonian health service Fundació TICSalut to test authentication in a live environment.
The CEO of Fundació TICSalut, Dr Francesc García Cuyàs, said five million citizens will benefit from Mobile Connect solution by being able to access their medical data and interact with healthcare professionals.
He commented: “I believe Mobile Connect is one of the key elements that will lead the future in mHealth. This will reinforce how citizens play an active role in managing their health.”
Meanwhile, SAP has integrated Cloudmark’s Security Platform into its SMS 365 product, which protects consumers from messaging spam. The company said the deal more than doubles the real-time spam blocking capabilities of the product.
SMS 365 has detected and eliminated almost 18 million attempted spam and grey route messages, including a credit card phishing attack that targeted several US operators, during the past two months alone, SAP claimed.
William Dudley, Group Director, Global Product Strategy and Solutions, SAP, said: “With a massive global reach of more than three billion individuals, SMS has become the last frontier for spammers and unscrupulous marketers. We are currently blocking more than one million spam messages per day for only a subset of our customers and this number will dramatically increase as we expand the capability to our entire customer footprint.”