IT Baseline Protection Manual - The Information Warfare Site

Safeguard Catalogue - Communications Remarks
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call number. Your bank." Depending on the content of a short message
received, it may be appropriate to make subsequent enquiries as to whether the
originator really did send this message.
It is quite common for short messages to end up with the wrong recipient as an
incorrect call number has been entered or the wrong entry has been selected
from the telephone directory as the recipient. Even if mobile phone displays
are small, the recipient details should still be checked prior to sending a
message.
Faxes
It is also possible to send faxes to the landline network via SMS. Again, faxes
can be received as long as they satisfy the restrictions of SMS transmissions,
especially as regards containing only a short text. Faxes can also be sent and
received using an IT system linked to the mobile phone (e.g. a notebook).
When using the fax capability, the points to be noted are similar to those
which apply to conventional fax machines (see Section 8.2 Fax machines),
namely:
- The memory of the mobile phone can become overloaded by incoming
faxes.
- Depending on the importance of the faxes, it may be necessary to make
copies of them, something which can be difficult with a mobile phone.
- It may be appropriate to block the call numbers of certain fax recipients
and originators.
- It may be appropriate to enquire after sending a fax whether it arrived in
legible fashion.
- It may be appropriate after receiving a fax to check whether it was really
sent by the originator indicated.
- It may be appropriate to review the destination addresses programmed
from time to time.
E-mail
Again, it is possible to receive and send e-mails over mobile phones as well as
short messages. The permitted length of an e-mail is usually only 160
characters, as for short messages. When this service is configured by the
network provider, the mobile phone is given its own e-mail address.
With some network providers, e-mail services can be combined with other
services. Thus, for example, incoming e-mails can be read by voice output
software, forwarded to a fax machine or to a different e-mail address.
Outgoing e-mails can be spoken into the mobile phone and sent as an audio
file (WAV file).
Like short messages and faxes, e-mails too can quickly exhaust the available
memory space. Moreover, the contract with the network provider may specify
that only a limited number of e-mails can be sent or received per month.
Potential security problems and safeguards to be adopted in connection with
the use of e-mail are described in Section 7.4 E-mail. It should be noted here
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IT-Baseline Protection Manual: Oktober 2000