SECURITY IN MOBILE COMPUTING

The security issues in mobile computing environment pose a special challenge. This is because we have to offer services over the air using networks over which we do not have any control. All the infrastructure and technology designed by GSM and other forums are primarily to increase the revenue of the network operators. This makes the technol og-y complex and very much dependent on the network operator. For example, the SMS technology is operator centric; WAP requires WAY gateway. These gateways are installed in the operator's network and managed by the operator. The security policy implemented by the network operator depends on operator's priority and revenue gen-eration potential and not on the need of the content provider. In a mobile computing environment user can move from one network to another, one device to another, one bearer to another. Therefore, theoretically the security


implementations need to be device independent, network independent, bearer inde-pendent, so on and so forth. The requirement is to arrive at a security model, which can offer a homogenous end-to-end security.