Infotech Lead Asia: Inadequate BYOD policies in enterprises have resulted into the growth of mobile threats.
Industry reports suggest that the number of unique mobile threats increased by 261 percent in two quarters.
Complex mobile malware is benefiting from mobile functionalities to exploit vulnerabilities on the device and in the network.
Enterprises with weak BYOD policy and without proper mobile device management capabilities will face great risk from covert interception and corruption.
ABI Research says the current mobile security services market will reach $1.88 billion by the end of 2013, by far dominating both the Mobile Device and Mobile Application Security markets.
Michela Menting, ABI Research’s senior analyst in cyber security, said:
“Isolated and standalone security solutions will work for the individual consumer, but for organizational applications and carriers, mobile security services will take the lead.”
Opportunities for mobile device and mobile app security vendors
According to Forrester mobile security predictions, BYOD will expand to include PCs in 2013 and beyond.
If the growth is going to continue, the market will offer significant opportunities for vendors targeting mobile network operators as well as businesses. Vendors such as Adaptive Mobile and F-Secure are well-placed to consolidate their position for carrier-grade security solutions.
Aujas Networks (India) and Zimperium (Israel) will also benefit from the market opportunities.
According to 2013 RSA Security Trends Survey, enterprises are struggling to keep pace with the changing face of security.
Security trends such as virtualization (73 percent), BYOD (66 percent) and the complexity of attack types (72 percent) have the greatest impact on securing enterprises.
Nearly half of respondents admit that traditional safeguards are less than adequate in protecting against threats related to these trends, with roughly one-third of respondents reporting that their security readiness is inadequate.
Mobile computing has triggered an explosion of new opportunities for enterprises to provide more flexibility for employees, engage with customers and partners, drive greater efficiencies, and create new revenue streams.
However, the cost and complexity of implementing secure, agile enterprise mobile systems have hindered IT organizations’ ability to act on these opportunities.
To tap emerging opportunities, WSO2 announced a new subsidiary called WSO2Mobile. WSO2Mobile will deliver an enterprise mobile platform that will address these challenges.
BYOD gains momentum
Forrester says more than half of today’s employees purchase their own smartphones and tablets for work and soon personal devices will become the norm in enterprise computing.
Over 70 percent of organisations have some form of a BYOD program, and 62 percent of those who use a smartphone for work and 56 percent of those who use a tablet for work purchased the device themselves.
Software major Dell has assisted several enterprises to develop custom applications, including shipment tracking and proof of delivery for a leading defense and security company, mobile point-of-sale solution for a retail store, sales data collection application for mobile field sales, supply chain management mobile solution for a major logistics company, secure insurance applications, and a business intelligence app for secure access to back-end operations data for more effective reporting.
Recently, the National Rugby League enrolled more than 400 corporate-owned smartphone and tablet devices.
The National Rugby League selected AirWatch, an Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) provider, to manage its deployment of corporate-owned devices and its Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program.
Maurice Veliz, IT manager, National Rugby League, said: “We selected AirWatch based on its device and application management capabilities, ease of management and competitive price point.”
After completion, NRL will offer a BYOD program that supports iOS and Android devices to its staff of 900. AirWatch also allows NRL to benefit from the Apple Volume Purchase Program, which will prevent end-users from needing to submit expense reports for NRL applications.
Data theft and challenges
Proact, in a recent survey, said seven in 10 respondents say their departments are receiving enough resources to meet demands in terms of quality and uptime. Six in ten are concerned about what business information employees can store using external cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Apple iCloud and suchlike. 55 per cent have refused to allow staff to connect private devices to company computers and software.
“A few respondents had no clear opinion on ‘bringing your own device’. This indicates that the topic is being discussed widely and that good answers are being sought,” says Eirik Pedersen, managing director of Proact.
No fewer than six in ten respondents say that they will be increasing their volumes by anything from eleven to 50 per cent this year (predominantly in the 11-25 per cent category).
The majority of companies resolve these problems by buying disks. The next most common solution involves deleting duplicates and old information, and demanding that employees remove private content.
Enterprise Mobility Application solutions from Dell Services help enterprises design a mobility strategy, and develop and manage custom applications that can enhance company productivity, employee satisfaction and customer experience.
Ambika K
