Embedded security solutions vendor Discretix today released a list of what it considers the major trends regarding mobile security next year. Not surprisingly, these trends revolve around the rise of the smartphone, which already accounts for 25 percent of the cell phone market, the company reports.

Given their current growth rate and the number of new devices, smartphones will account for an increasing share of the overall market—according to some, as much as 40 percent over the next five years, at a minimum 400 million devices per year. The growing number smartphones changes the threat landscape in a number of ways, according to Discretix.

For example, post production apps (i.e. downloaded apps) can introduce malware and spyware onto the device (i.e. the spyware installed on Blackberry models in the UAE). And some of the new operating systems (i.e. Android) are open source, missing the traditional safeguards and closed environment of other real time operating systems.

As an open operating system these platforms become more susceptible to viruses, and with large number of smarphones in use a virus can create significant disruptions. Also, the devices are multi-use with massive storage capacity, moving data and applications freely between the enterprise and the home.

These threats taken together require a more robust approach to security. However, smartphone security is complicated by a number of different requirements, all of which must be met.

For instance, you need protect the device and its contents, while still enabling applications and services to run. And yet all of these security precautions should be completely transparent to the end user

Last month, leading Windows Mobile and Google Android smartphone vendor HTC announced the selection of Discretix to deliver Open Mobile Alliance DRM (Digital Rights Management) capabilities to its handsets. The solution, already in deployment, is designed for all forms of premium content according to the latest OMA standards.

The latest DRM specification from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standards body adds several new features that reflect the changing needs of content usage. Most prominent are subscription based services as well as a metering capability that allows for royalty collection based on actual content usage. OMA DRM also adds support for user-editable metadata as well as inclusion of content issuer-defined metadata such as artist, title and genre information.