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Mobile Security: Smartphones still 'Enterprise Unready'
Enterprise networks are increasingly being accessed by mobile devices and that’s making a lot of IT professionals uncomfortable. A recent report found that only 9 percent of organizations are aware of which mobile devices are accessing their networks. And in another survey, two-thirds of organizations said that they had no way of identifying mobile device vulnerabilities.
Nigel Stanley, security practice leader at Bloor Research, for example, went so far as to say that “Security people I work with are scared witless by consumerization and the rapid adoption of these devices. Aside from the technical challenges, organisations need to understand the importance of a decent mobile device security policy and supporting user education.”
Ron Gula, CEO and CTO of Tenable Network Security, said that “Mobile devices add an entirely new level of complexity to an organization, but security too often takes a back seat to convenience”.
Raimund Genes, CTO of Trend Micro, said that “Against the growing, unstoppable backdrop of consumerisation and BYOD, every mobile device is a risk to business.”
Gary Fish, FishNet CEO, said that “Our company is seeing this as a major issue because of the number of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) instances and the vulnerabilities that can threaten mobile computing, such as unsecured Wi-Fi access, lost or stolen devices, and malware attacks on mobile operating systems.”
A recent report by Bloor Research looks at the security features of the most popular mobile devices: iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone. The report concluded that “while some mobile platforms have evolved very noticeably along enterprise lines, there is still a strong ‘consumer marketing’ legacy in some quarters and this is negating some of the progress made on the enterprise front. Indeed, some of the attributes we have examined in the report are still firmly ‘enterprise-unready‘.”
Among all smartphones included in the Bloor study, RIM’s Blackberry device ranked as the most secure. While BlackBerry has been on the defense lately trying to prop up a shrinking market share, the BlackBerry OS is mature and still has a clear advantage over other mobile platforms in the area of security. That may be the reason why the federal government purchased 400,000 RIM devices over the last year.
