McAfee cuts users out of mobile security loop

Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Jan Volzke, McAfee's head of global marketing, said that it would be nearly impossible to get a client side security software onto handsets because of the plethora of handset operating systems.

"You can do this on the PC because Microsoft opened up the software," he said. "But there are too many with mobile. Say you have a Motorola Razr: you've got no way to put security software on there at all."

He said that McAfee's latest consumer study into mobile security showed over half of all consumers wanted this approach and nearly 60 per cent thought that it should be the network operator's responsibility anyway.

While some smartphone platforms would be able to install and run anti-malware software he said that was a tiny percentage of the market and the company was happy to leave that to others.

"If F-Secure want to go after that market then more power too them; we'll take the other 90 per cent of users," he said.