Search And Review Literature Related To Mobile Computing

                  Mobile Computing Literature Name Institution Date
Mobile Computing Literature Mobile computing poses as one of the major challenges in the information technology security threats today. This is also a major concern even in the workplaces as the strategy of ‘bring your own devices’ continues to be widely adopted. This proliferation of devices in the work settings is bringing forth new set of security challenges. Khalil and Weippl (2012) agree that security is of paramount importance in the mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) due to its intrinsic vulnerabilities. The security threats go beyond the mobility and the ad-hoc networks to even the mobile agents and all sectors of mobile computing. This paper details mobile computing security and encompasses user security issues. Mobile computing is transforming the world. This technology permits data transmission, voice transmission, and video transmission via computers and/or via any other enabled wireless devices without the connection to a fixed physical link (Khalil & Weippl, 2012).  It entails mobile hardware, mobile software and mobile communication. Mobile communication involves the infrastructures which facilitate reliable and seamless communication. This encompasses bandwidth, portals, protocols and services. Data format defined at this stage ensures no collisions. The mobile hardware typically involves the mobile gadgets, devices and phones which access and receive the mobility services. On the hardware, runs the mobile software which ensures the requirements and characteristics of the mobile applications and incorporates the wireless communication aspects. As any other technology, mobile computing is crippled by many security challenges. The mobility of the mobile computing technology poses monitoring issues. This means the proper usage of the technology is hard to evaluate. This permits for unwanted access and usage for cracking, hacking, online fraud, malice, pirating and industrial espionage. In addition, credential verification is also a major challenge. There is username and password sharing in mobile computing which poses as a great security threat. This brings about issues of misrepresentation. Unauthorised access in the mobile computing technology continues to persist with issues such as identity theft and intrusions growing. Khalil and Weippl (2012) insist on first building security architecture for end-to-end security solutions. Also, security must be considered as part of the network development. The damages of security threats can include node impersonation, message contamination and leakage of confidential information. Mobile nodes are autonomous units hence can freely roam. This means they have insufficient physical protection hence can be easily hijacked, compromised and/or captured. Hence, the infrastructure and the mobile nodes must function in such a way that they do not trust any peer. Without a centralized authority, the ad-hoc networks remain vulnerable to security attacks. Applications and services on the devices can be weak links. There are usually proxies and agents running on intermediate nodes and on in base-stations for traffic shaping, caching and content transcoding. These proxies may be penetrated, and the leakage of confidential information may occur. These security issues trickle down and greatly affect the technology users. From mobile smartphone to car navigation systems, pervasive mobile computing is penetrating every sector of human lives. Undoubtedly, mobile computing has advanced many sectors such as health care, transport, trade, sustainability and industrialization. They provide on-time, on-demand, real-time, quick, reliable, efficient and effective services that enable industries meet their objectives. Even in such a dynamic and nearly a ubiquitously connected globe, security and privacy issues still shake this advancing technology. F...