AT&T beefing up mobile security with help from Juniper Networks

Hacking has turned out to be a much bigger problem this year than anyone might have expected back in January.

Although breaches on mobile gadgets has been prevalent for awhile (particularly celebrities' phones in the past), the lack of security on cell phones has become extremely evident in the last few months -- particularly thanks to the News of the World scandal.

Taking a somewhat proactive approach (better late than never, right?), AT&T is teaming with Juniper Networks to beef up security measures with a new platform focused on better protecting consumer and enterprise mobile devices.

AT&T's strategy will roll out in several phases, but it will commence with the aptly-named AT&T Mobile Security application. Based on Juniper Networks' Junos Pulse network client, which is a solution designed for enabling and monitoring network security on mobile devices as well as integration of third-party apps, the program should be available to AT&T customers later this year.

For consumer-grade devices, the app will incorporate anti-virus and anti-malware software as well as advanced application monitoring.

As for enterprise mobile products, which one could argue requires the highest amount of security depending on the user's profession, this version of the app will actually be quite similar to the consumer version for now with all of the aforementioned features. It will also "maintain compliance with government regulations" and "enforce security policies."

In a crackdown on culprits of another sort, AT&T recently announced plans to punish iPhone jailbreakers using their Apple-made smartphones for illegal tethering. Anyone who doesn't stop and gets caught will automatically be transferred over to a tiered plan and be forced to pay for a tethering add-on plan.

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