There are two components of security in mobile computing: security of devices and security in networks. A secure network access involves authentication between the device and the base stations or Web servers. This is to ensure that only authenticated devices can be connected to the network for obtaining the requested services. No Malicious Code can impersonate the service provider to trick the device into doing something it does not mean to. Thus, the networks also play a crucial role in security of mobile devices.

Some eminent kinds of attacks to which mobile devices are subjected to are: push attacks, pull attacks and crash attacks.

Authentication services security is important given the typical attacks on mobile devices through wireless networks: Dos attacks, traffic analysis, eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks and session hijacking. Security measures in this scenario come from Wireless Application Protocols (WAPs), use of VPNs, media access control (MAC) address filtering and development in 802.xx standards.