If you use a 'smart phone' well then it really isn't very secure at all. Probably less so than using the average PC to connect to the internet. Apart from the numerous features available to hackers to exploit, the ease in which a trojan can be installed and various flaws in the network design, you're left with a pretty dumb little computer that is fairly vulnerable.

These thoughts are prompted by a reader's question about a particular protocol used in networks which aspiring mobile transactionists might see as an obstacle, and hackers would see as an opportunity.

I see it as an opportunity too. It doesn't take much searching to find plenty of examples of executives and even governments having their mobile phones bugged or their phone records lifted. Even stars have had their mobiles stolen and subsequently their contact's numbers exposed.

Perhaps there's a market for a phone anonymiser add-on to our service. Something where no-one could steal your numbers and even if they stole your phone they wouldn't get anything useful. Similarly when you cross a border and 'immigration' lifts your address book from your phone it won't contain anything useful. Additionally even if they hacked the telephone companies' records to find out who you'd called it wouldn't reveal anything.

And yes we can do it, easily and probably even get you a better call rate too.

We're probably not that paranoid yet so we won't be filing and IPO on that one, but it's interesting to see what comes out of a question and a little brainstorming over lunch.

p.s. for the reader who asked the original question, of course it's not an issue for us.