Three Steps to Mitigate Mobile Security Risks
Smartphones and tablets are everywhere. Most companies allow employees to use personal mobile devices to access corporate data, but they typically have very little visibility into which employees are accessing corporate data and what kinds of devices they're using. As a result, they are blind to the risks these devices have to their data.
Based on data from a real life case study, this whitepaper will cover:
- The mobile security landscape and trends
- Key mobile security risks
- A simple step-by-step approach to mitigate mobile security risks and protect company data
Below is a preview of this whitepaper. To get your own copy, fill out the form to the right.
Bring Your Own Device Growth
In a January 2012 market research study, 71% of the businesses surveyed said that mobile devices have caused an increase in security incidents.
Whitepaper
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The “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) trend started in late 2009 and caught on with users faster than IT expected, especially as iOS and Android devices became dominant. Today, a majority of companies have employees bringing their own smartphones and tablets to work. While there have been clear employee productivity gains from BYOD, a negative by-product is the significant growth in data security risk. In a January 2012 market research study by Checkpoint Software, 71 percent of the businesses surveyed said that mobile devices have caused an increase in security incidents, citing significant concerns about the loss and privacy of sensitive information stored on employee devices, including corporate email (79 percent), customer data (47 percent), and network login credentials (38 percent).
Given that the BYOD trend is set to accelerate, this white paper will help you better understand the underlying risk associated with these devices and provide a simple step-by-step approach to mitigate their risks. The paper relies on data garnered from more than 130 million device connection events, and this mobile device usage data was collected from companies involved in the trial program for Mobilisafe’s Mobile Risk Management product.
IT managers significantly underestimated the number and kinds of mobile devices connecting to their network.
Cause of the Risks
A key conclusion from this study was that IT managers significantly underestimated the diversity of mobile devices connecting to their network. Even though these IT managers had serious concerns about data risk from these mobile devices, they did not feel they had adequate tools to determine those risks and respond to them.
Some key supporting data from the study:
- On average, more than 80 percent of employees were already using smartphones and tablets
- A new device model was introducted to a company for every seven employees
- 56 percent of iOS devices were running outdated firmware
- 39 percent of total authenticated devices were inactive for more than 30 days, prompting concerns and conversations with employees about lost, sold or otherwise misplaced devices with employee credentials and sensitive corporate data
Other Sections in the Full Download
Pervasiveness of the Risks
Mitigating the Risks
