Sydney based software developer Leopard Labs have won a Consensus Software Award (CSA) for their mozone product, which provides protection and control for mobile devices.

The Consensus Awards, which reward excellence in Australian and New Zealand software design, were announced in Sydney on Tuesday 6th May by Opposition Leader Dr Brendan Nelson.

"We are extremely proud of winning this award and greatly value the recognition received from the CSA," Leopard Labs CTO Neil Groll says. "We anticipate this Award will provide a springboard for further market access. mozone offers unrivaled benefits for mobile protection and device management. It is designed to suit both the parental and corporate markets."

The awards are judged by 50 industry specialists and are sponsored by IBM, Microsoft, Bartier Perry and BDO Kendalls.

Leopard Labs, a subsidiary of Australian internet security provider NetBox Blue, has developed a unique client-side internet filter for mobile devices.

The solution sits on the mobile phone handset and filters unwanted or inappropriate internet content and avoids the need for a costly server-side solution.

The Leopard Labs solution costs carriers nothing up front. It will be sold to users for a nominal license fee and an ongoing maintenance charge.

With the Leopard Labs solution, network operators can continue to push high revenue generating data services to customers, safe in the knowledge that content is filtered appropriately. The solution can be administered centrally.

The solution also supports the Government, Internet regulatory agencies and parents in their attempt to protect children for pornography, cyber bullying and other undesirable internet content.

Parents can use the solution to set up policies for content access and website usage. It can also be used to restrict the phone from receiving MMS or SMS messages from unknown sources.

The Leopard Labs solution also enables business managers to stop staff using their mobile phones to stream sport, music and other non-work related material from the internet.

More than 2.4 billion people around the world own a mobile phone. A quarter of them use their phones to browse the internet.