Panelists assail enterprise mobile security

Friday, October 22, 2010

Most businesses treat security in their mobile devices as an afterthought, according to a panel of experts at the Interop IT Conference and Expo in New York.

According to a recent InformationWeek article, companies that typically approach IT security with utmost diligence are failing to apply the same scrutiny to their smartphones, tablet PCs and infrastructures, the panel said.

"I don’t think enterprises are taking mobile security seriously enough," said panelist Alex Wolfe, editor in chief at InformationWeek. "In a lot of businesses, smartphone provisioning is the province of low-level clerks."

According to Wolfe, one part of the problem is that most high-profile security breaches in the past have involved stolen laptops or hacked networks. However, with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets in the workplace, security attacks on mobile devices are expected to increase.

Additionally, most mobile devices are designed for consumers, rather than enterprise users, and don't offer the security features found on business PCs and servers, according to InformationWeek.

One solution to managing security is for enterprises to limit the number of mobile operating systems they support, InformationWeek asserted.

The rapidly increasing use of smartphones in enterprise signals a growing need for mobile security. According to a recent ChangeWave report, 35 percent of corporate IT buyers plan to purchase new smartphones next quarter.