The most popular and comprehensive Open Source ECM platform
Let us know more
Mobile Security: Security Efforts Shift to Mobile
While the use of security software on PCs has become a routine operation, the same isn’t true yet for smartphones and other mobile devices. But that is changing quickly. In a report by Chenxi Wang, Vice President and analyst at Forrester Research, and summarized by Fahmida Y. Rashid of eWeek, the global security market is shown to be growing very quickly and is estimated to reach $14.4 billion by 2017. Compared to mobile security sales numbers from 2008, that represents 53 percent growth. Much of the growth in security software is following the growth in the number of mobile devices — 300 million mobile devices were sold in 2010 and that is expected to increase to 650 million by 2012.
As smartphones and mobile devices have grown in popularity, security problems have begun to plague the devices. Security-firm McAfee estimates that security issues on mobile devices are growing at a rate of 46 percent annually. Mobile devices are now handling the same kinds of data that can be handled by PCs and laptops. In addition to voice communication, mobile devices now regularly handle tasks, like video conferencing, sending and receiving email, online banking and shopping, and viewing and editing documents. Some of the security problems that are being seen on a more regular basis include:
- Data lost due to lost or stolen devices
- Data breaches
- Data lost by malware and malicious applications
- Unauthorized access to the devices
Wang notes in the report that part of the problem is that the mobile software application market is still very immature and that many mobile applications contain flaws that make them vulnerable to attack. Common problems include poorly architected applications and improper handling of access credentials.
