Tag: tablet security

Mobile security shortfalls plague businesses

A new report revealed the lack of protection enterprises are putting into place on employee devices.

MobileIron has released a new report providing insight on the state of mobile security shortfalls in business. Enterprises are inadequately securing employee mobile devices and apps. This leaves them open to a spectrum of cyber threats, says the MobileIron report.

The results of the study were published in the 2016 Q2 Mobile Security and Risk Review.

Fewer than 5 percent of companies have adequately implemented threat detection software. A mere 8 percent of enterprises have enforced updates to operating systems. Failing to take these very basic steps represents considerable mobile security shortfalls, says the report. Moreover, 40 percent of businesses have experienced a loss or theft of mobile devices. That represents an increase of 7 percent over only two quarters beforehand, in Q4 2015.

The insight provided by these statistics in mobile security shortfalls is considered to be quite alarming.

Mobile Security Shortfalls in BusinessThe main problem is that the number of mobile devices used for business is rising exponentially. Moreover, those devices are being used with a dramatically larger number of mobile apps. At the same time, the number of mobile security threats is growing explosively. The landscape is, therefore, becoming much more dangerous very quickly. However, businesses are not even covering the basics to make sure their data is secure.

According to MobileIron lead architect, James Plouffe, “The velocity of mobile attacks is increasing, but the latest data shows that enterprises are still not doing the things they could be to protect themselves. This lack of security hygiene demonstrates that enterprises are alarmingly complacent, even when many solutions are readily available.”

This situation is less problematic in the U.K. There, businesses take greater action against mobile security shortfalls than their counterparts from other countries. The research indicated that only 39 percent of U.K. businesses were out of compliance. This was the fewest among all the countries studied. Moreover, they also had the fewest compromised devices at only 4 percent. Furthermore, they experienced the lowest rate (17 percent) of having staff members remove mobile device management software from their smartphones and tablets.

Mobile security to be restored on Amazon’s Fire tablets

The marketplace and technology giant is bringing encryption back after considerable consumer upset.

Amazon.com has now announced that it will be returning its encryption mobile security feature to its Fire tablets following complaints and upset from privacy advocates and customers that accused the massive online marketplace of quietly slipping the security option off the devices with its latest operating system release.

A spokesperson for the company promised that the feature would be returned to the OS in the spring.

Robin Handaly, spokesperson for Amazon.com, explained that “We will return the option for full-disk encryption with a Fire OS update coming this spring.” The decision to remove the encryption component of the Fire operating system’s mobile security fell into the spotlight quite suddenly this week. Amazon explained that the feature had been removed in one of its Fire OS versions that first started shipping in the fall of 2015 because there weren’t many customers who had used it in previous versions.

This mobile security feature scramble’s the device data so it is accessible only to someone who has entered a password.

Mobile Security RestoredThe encryption feature was built into previous versions of the Fire operating system and blocked access to the contents of the device to anyone who did not know the correct password. According to Bruce Schneier, a widely recognized cryptologist, Amazon’s choice to take down this encryption was “stupid.” Schneier was one of the large number of people and groups who were public about their criticism of Amazon’s removal of the encryption security and who publicly requested that the company bring it back.

Amazon isn’t the only one that has been caught up in struggles with regards to mobile device security. Apple has also been facing several legal battles with regards to whether or not they should be required to unlock iPhones involved in criminal cases, including the case involving Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters.

This week, Amazon.com joined many other large tech companies when it added its signature to a court brief that was created to encourage a federal judge would take Apple’s side and not require that company to write code that would break through the mobile security of the iPhone used by Farook.