Severity of Mobile Security
Mobile security continues to be an untapped yet very serious issue for most companies nowadays. Mobile phones and tablets are key elements in the modern corporate environment, where professionals are increasingly more dependent on new technologies in order to perform their daily duties.
Threatpost, a media outlet in the cybersecurity sector, conducted a survey to ask companies their stance regarding mobile security. The results aren’t promising: 52% of the surveyed companies reported feeling unprepared to correctly handle mobile security incidents.
We can take many things from this survey’s results, of course. More than half of the surveyed companies are, in principle, aware of their own limitations when it comes to mobile security, which is the first step to implement better practices. It’s also important to take into account that there may be companies feeling prepared when they truly aren’t.
Let’s dig into the details.
The Survey
Mobile breaches are a reality in corporate environments. Sensitive information moves fluidly between workers and, most of the time, mobile phones take part in this.
While 52% of the surveyed companies reported feeling unprepared, only 37% of the total reported having the necessary tools already implemented to prevent and mitigate mobile security incidents or at least feeling prepared to do so.
The remaining 10% reported not knowing about their current status in terms of mobile security.
2019 may not be the best year neither. 59% of the surveyed companies reported their pessimistic perspective regarding mobile security in the upcoming months, saying that it’s will probably be more difficult to protect mobile devices from malicious moves as phishing attacks.
High Dependency
One of the key aspects in mobile security and all the involved risks is that these devices are now essential in most environments.
The relevance of mobile phones in the workplace right now is higher than ever before and will grow even more as these devices become more technically capable and replace many (or most) of the computer’s functions and roles at offices.
This dependency may also apply to tablets, which are equally exposed to security incidents through malicious apps.
Growing Fears
Recent news doesn’t help to reduce the current perception of mobile security. Major names as Apple and Google, main players in terms of mobile technologies, have recently reported considerable privacy flaws and leaks in their services.
This obviously increases the fear among businesses, especially in high-competitive sectors where hackers work to exploit flaws that allow them to steal sensitive data that may have value in some markets.
News as the recent FaceTime flaw or the constant purge of malicious apps from the Android Play Store only fuel the uncertainty experienced by many companies. Another relevant news was regarding the espionage campaign now known as Dark Caracal that aimed Android users in 21 countries, stealing private data since 2012.
A Difficult Race
While mobile technologies develop further, the right practices to protect data in the workplace evolve as well. This way, it turns into a fast-paced marathon where many businesses may burn out without proper help from cybersecurity experts.
Another challenge that companies face is that mixing personal with corporate devices is getting common. However, the survey expressed that companies are fully aware of this problem.
It’s recommended for companies that allow the use of personal mobile phones for business matters to implement a set of regulations that help with privacy. Yet, this would be very difficult and would find resistance in workers who don’t want their personal devices to be influenced by the company’s policies. Here, social media is a huge problem, as these platforms are increasingly more present and their use is often intensive.
The Bottom Line
While most companies may feel unprepared to face mobile security incidents today, there are important ongoing developments to improve the situation.
Education for workers and appropriate mechanisms to fight back potential malicious attacks are two parts of the complex solution that cybersecurity demands.
Mobile devices aren’t going anywhere. All the way around, we can expect to have them more involved in work environments as time pass and new, more productive technologies become accessible.
Recognizing certain weaknesses, this time in terms of cybersecurity, is paramount for companies to correct and improve. With the growing relevance of data, even in sectors that it’s apparently extraneous, making it secure under any circumstance is a priority.
