News
Mobile Security Driving Need for Security and Device Management
- By ADT Staff
- November 7, 2005
A survey on mobile security released on Monday by Good Technology, a handheld
computing software and service provider, suggests enterprises are seeking new
ways to address handheld device and security management.
The survey, conducted by Zoomerang, an online market researcher, is based
on nearly 600 U.S.-based IT professionals and members of executive management
at organizations with 150 to 16,000 employees. Responding companies represent
a spectrum of vertical industries deploying mobile messaging and corporate application
access solutions.
Seventy-nine percent of respondents consider e-mail the greatest security
risk among the applications deployed on mobile devices, followed by corporate
intranet applications, which 26 percent of respondents regard as the greatest
vulnerability.
Forty-eight percent of respondents say having to open firewalls to allow inbound
wireless device traffic concerns them most. Therefore, 30 percent of respondents
are not likely to deploy a wireless solution that requires opening firewall
ports, making perimeter security a top priority when selecting a mobile e-mail
solution.
On-device data encryption remains top of mind for IT administrators. The survey
indicates 59 percent will not deploy a solution that does not encrypt data on
the device. In addition, 65 percent of individuals surveyed say wireless virus
protection, along with the ability to update virus files over the air, are very
important handheld security features.
Although the ability to detect and control applications on handhelds remains
a top concern, the study concludes the majority of enterprises do not have standard
operating procedures to address this issue; 70 percent of respondents do not
have an automated mechanism to determine which applications mobile users have
on their devices. Only half (53 percent) are able to enforce security and password
policies consistently and effectively on devices without end-user dependency.