Enterprise IT Professionals Consider Mobile Security asTop Priority

Mobile Security is increasingly becoming a top concern for chief information officers and

information technology teams worldwide. Recently, More than 300 chief information

officers and information technology professionals who participated in the 2014

InformationWeek Mobile Security Survey, voiced their opinions. Notably a trend was

that IT teams were concerned over the potential vulnerabilities regarding unauthorized

access to company information via mobile devices; less concern was placed on the

hardware type of mobile devices.

According to the survey, securing highly confidential company information is rated as

very important by 68% of the respondents. This response is notable 21 points ahead of

two other options: “Securing devices themselves” & “using anti-malware or MDM client

software”. Furthermore, it was found that 72% of respondents consider that their

foremost concern for mobile security is the compromise of company information as a

result of a lost or stolen employee device.

Furthermore, it was found in the study that nearly half of the respondents confidently find

that their current security platforms and services employed are effective at monitoring

and protecting data. However, 40% of respondents are concerned with employees who

may send confidential company information to cloud storage services. This leads to a

tricky predicament for the information technology team. As bring your own device

(BYOD) policies are becoming increasingly promoted and prevalent in the enterprise, the

security holes and hurdles mobile platforms give arise to can be difficult to tackle at

company-wide scale.

Furthermore, questions that information technology teams should discuss and find

definitive answers to include: Should we permit personal devices to connect to the

internal company network? Should we block off access to certain highly sensitive files in

the cloud? What are the most appropriate mobile security measures? Peaklight research

analyst Otis Bard chimes in on the concerns, “Enterprises must take the proper

precautions to prepare for company data actions that their employees might put them in.

Mobile security platforms and services fulfill that crucial need.” One notable respondent

to the InformationWeek Mobile Security Survey stated, “Many of these questions ask if

we 'allow' types of behavior. We don't. However, the fact that we have nothing in place to

prevent it constitutes permission."

According to the survey, about 50% of respondents strictly prohibit company information

to be stored on employees’ personal devices. However, of the subset of folks who do

allow such behavior, they require that the company data be enclosed in a container. With

the rise of BYOD policies, the enterprise utilization of company data is bound to shift to

adopt more data in the container type methods.

In summary, information technology professionals in the enterprise are forcefully facing

difficult mobile security issues. Given the consumer adoption of mobile phones,

tablets, and wearable computers which is growing at light speed pace – it’s important the

enterprise protect their assets and sensitive information. Its important the IT teams look to

mobile security platforms and services to assure high levels of protection as seamlessly as

possible, to avoid potential company-marring data leaks, threats, and attacks.