Study on Mobile Device Security

by U.S. Department of Homeland Security, National Institute of Standards and Technology

This report identifies threats and documents gaps in available defenses as areas for further research or improvement. Additionally, a framework for modeling mobile threats is presented to assist in the identification of attacker tactics and techniques, which in turn informs areas where current mitigations fall short of protecting mobile devices and information. This report also provides an analysis of emerging threats that are likely to happen based on past trends in crime, the general evolution of cellular network attacks, and advances in academic and public sector security research.

The report lists mobile security best practices collected from NIST, other government agencies, non-government organizations and private industry. It also provides recommendations for assessing some of the risks posed by weaknesses in U.S. networks that appear to be unaddressed by industry. Specifically called out are weaknesses in Signaling System 7 (SS7) and Diameterand the limited response from industry on this highly publicized threat that cannot be solved with changes to end user mobile devices.

113 pages, PDF

Published April 1, 2017

About the author

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a cabinet department of the U.S. federal government with responsibilities in public security, particularly anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management. Major subordinate agencies include Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Secret Service, Coast Guard, and Transportation Security Administration (TSA), among others.