Mobile security in 2016

Mobile security in 2016:

With most of the enterprise and consumer services business inevitably embracing mobile security, mobile platforms are the most recent and primary platforms of attack.  As we have professional hackers, ‘hacktivists’ and many government agencies now tracking applications there is a great propensity to consider that mobile devices are highly desirable and dangerous.

Mobile devices have vulnerabilities at device, OS, appstore and network level.   The possibility of hacker entering your life and destroying all in a minute – if you are an individual, business or a consumer is higher than ever.   However the losses are different, the vulnerability remains the same, and through that single point of entry.

Mobile Virtualization:

BT group, in a report in Financial Times report said that more than 40% UK businesses suffered a mobile security breach in 2015.  Since mobile devices are not designed to handle security – especially due to resource constraints, an operating system based virtualization, like how servers are converted into virtual machines within a single physical machine is the best possible solution.  Such instances run within their own name space and hence are secure, at the same time scalable.  This way, a business mobile instance can be separate from a consumer mobile instance, for example.  

The summary is that mobile virtualization is the next step, as containerization has its challenges. Instead of only securing applications ( as in containerization), mobile applications secure virtual instances based on their use.  This way, employee privacy and choices are protected, while enterprises can feel secure – considering that more than 40% businesses have reported actual attacks, rather than only auditing vulnerabilities.

The final word:

Each individual enterprise has to reconcile to the fact that employees and consumers will work, transact and communicate through mobile platforms.  We have explored the challenges of the enterprise security managers who have to deal with this dichotomy of securing the business vs employee privacy – including COPE and BYOD.  The realization that there are many technology options emerging about protecting the device and the data is a great positive sign.  With high usage, huge visibility and deep vulnerability, mobile device security and management will be a key focus area that Information Security experts will be tracking and planning in the next 5 years.