Tag: commercial mobile security

Mobile security research from AT&T shows most businesses are proactive

| June 16, 2013

The study indicated that approximately 90 percent of companies are making a concerted effort.

The findings from the latest study conducted by AT&T have indicated that small businesses in the United States are making proactive efforts to ensure that mobile security is a central part of their efforts over that channel.

As company heads see a growing number of headlines regarding data breaches, more protection efforts are being taken.

Businesses are regularly seeing mobile security risks in the headlines in terms of data breaches, cyberattacks, and even natural disasters such as the tornadoes in Oklahoma and Superstorm Sandy. This awareness is causing those in charge of IT to boost their efforts to protect themselves against damage from these types of events while at the same time they put their own disaster recovery plans into place.

On an increasing basis, these disaster recovery plans are incorporating mobile security into their strategies.

Mobile Security - AT&TThe largest wireless operator in the country has stated that among the mobile security efforts have included the incorporation of apps, wireless network capabilities and cloud services. The AT&T study’s results also included the following:

• 84 percent of American company execs are concerned about the mobile security risks associated with using the devices and mobile networks, and the increase in threats that this could bring about.
• Over half of the executives that took part in the survey (63 percent) felt that the most important security concern this year was the threat of a data breach.
• 88 percent of the respondents stated that they understood the growing need for mobile security efforts and that their own companies already had established a proactive strategy.
• 64 percent of the companies surveyed included their wireless network capabilities as an element of their business continuity plan.
• 87 percent of the surveyed execs said that their companies already had a precautionary business continuity plan established in case of a catastrophe or a threat. This was just a sliver higher than it had been in 2012, when it was 86 percent.

According to the AT&T AVP of mobile, cloud, and access management security, Michael Singer, in a statement about this mobile security survey, “Companies today are very aware and concerned about the potential threats that could disrupt their operations.” He added that “With their business continuity plans in place, businesses are investing in new technologies like network enabled cloud services to help strengthen and expand their overall continuity strategies.”

Mobile security incidents experience by most companies in 2012

| June 13, 2013

A report from Check Point Software revealed that for nearly half of them, this led to over $100,00 in damages.

A recent report produced by Check Point Software, which was published under the title of “The Impact of Mobile Devices on Information Security” has indicated that over the 12 months preceding their survey 79 percent of businesses experienced an incident relating to mobile security.

The survey not only determined that these issues were quite common but they are also very costly.

The survey included the participation of 790 IT professionals. It was conducted by Dimensional Research, which discovered that for 42 percent of the businesses that experienced these mobile security incidences, 42 percent said that it cost over $100,000 to repair the damages. Moreover, for 16 percent of the participants, the cost of these incidents was greater than $500,000.

Among large businesses, 52 percent said that mobile security incidents cost them over a half million dollars.

Mobile Security ProblemsNearly all of the companies that permitted the use of personal smartphones said that there is a growth in the number of these devices connecting to their corporate networks. Moreover, 45 percent of them said that there are five times more personal smartphones connecting to those networks than there had been in 2011.

At the same time, the research suggested that 63 percent of the participating businesses do not manage the corporate information over personal smartphones. Furthermore, 93 percent have stated that they have struggled to implement policies surrounding their BYOD programs. In fact, 67 percent felt that mobile security regarding corporate information is their primary challenge with BYOD policies.

Check Point mobile security evangelist and researcher, Tomer Teller, explained in a statement that “Without question, the explosion of BYOD, mobile apps, and cloud services has created a herculean task to protect corporate information for businesses both large and small.” He added that “An effective mobile security strategy will focus on protecting corporate information on the multitude of devices and implementing proper secure access controls to information and applications on the go. Equally important is educating employees about best practices as majority of businesses are more concerned with careless employees than cybercriminals.”