Expect mobile security software from Microworld shortly

Mumbai: Microworld is working on creating a security solution for mobile devices. This product, which has yet not been named officially, will be ready in the next three months. But Govind Rammurthy, CEO, Microworld said that the product will not be made available to customers as he has not worked out the go-to-market strategy for the same.

“There is a need for having security solution to protect mobile phones and hand-held devices which is why we have started working on creating this. But we are not sure how to take it to the market, because this could go as a service which telecom service providers could extend to their customers or could be a downloaded service that users could subscribe to,” said Rammurthy, on the sidelines of the launch of its new software, eScan Version 10.

One reason why the company is skittish about introducing this product in India is because this has to be offered as a service and mobile users in the country still expect service to be offered for free by the service providers. And with the economic slowdown, service providers are not keen to invest into more value-added services, which will call for heavy investment-something that offering security solutions on a dynamic mobile platform will entail.

“We have been talking to a telecom major in India, but the payment and delivery terms for offering security to their mobile users was not very clear. While we wanted to enter into an agreement to offer the security solution to them with regular updates; they wanted to just advocate our solution and expected us to get revenues from users direct. This is contrary to our business strategy where we have always operated through channel than go direct to end users,” Rammurthy added.

Though Microworld is present in 10 other countries besides India, it does not expect a great uptake for mobile security solution from these regions as well. “The reason is that any telecom service provider overseas wants to work with a company which has around 100 people deployed in that country to offer support to them and their customers. It is not viable for me to invest in this kind of infrastructure just to boost the concept of security on mobile devices,” Rammurthy clarified.

The only reason Microworld is still working on creating the solution for mobile security is to have the product ready, in case it is able to make headway with telecom service providers who would want to offer the security to their customers on a subscription model.

Incidentally, several other vendors too have their mobile security products in place. McAfee has its VirusScan Mobile designed for wireless device protection which the company claims provides real-time protection against viruses, worms and spyware Trojan horses, and battery-sapping malware and threats originating via e-mail, instant messaging and Internet downloads.

F-Secure too has mobile security solutions and has tied-up with Nokia, where it bundles its mobile security solution along with select high-end Nokia handsets. It claims that its software protects mobile phone from worms, viruses and trojans, whilst the firewall checks both incoming and outgoing network traffic.

Yet another vendor in this space is Kaspersky which has a solution that protects smartphones from Internet attacks, malicious programs and SMS spam. It also provides protection of data stored on a smartphone, should the device be lost or stolen.

Meanwhile, Microworld has introduced eScan 10, an anti-virus, content security and firewall software, that has been awarded the VB100 percent certificate recently by Virus Bulletin at a pre-release test. eScan 10 offers multi-level protection with configuration controls providing enterprise-grade configurability to those who want it, Microworld stated. It also features real-time network activity monitor making use of a TCP viewer utility, solidly implemented high-quality main anti-malware and anti-hacking components and many additional tools, according to a company release.

The product is targeted at SMB customers and will be available through the company's 24 channel partners as well various retail outlets in the country. It is available in a box form and can also be downloaded from the company's website and the SMB anti-virus version is priced at Rs 1,000 per pack.