Businesses are concerned about the security of mobile devices with access to corporate data, but are still slow to find ways of controlling their use, according to a study.

 

The issue of safely using mobile devices in corporate networks is only ranked third by company employees responsible for critical business decisions, including those related to IT security, according to the B2B International survey.

 

However, more than half (55 per cent) of the same specialists taking part in B2B International survey confirmed they are seriously concerned about the security of mobile devices. 

 

Corporate IT and business professionals were asked to identify the three tasks they consider the most important for their IT personnel in order to build a secure IT infrastructure. Mobile device security scored relatively poorly – just 13 per cent regard working with Mobile Device Management systems (MDM) as among the three most critical tasks. Protecting confidential information was chosen by 27 per cent, making it the second most important task. The top issue was preventing cybercriminals from infiltrating the corporate network – this was highlighted by 31 per cent of those surveyed, a statement from Kaspersky said. 

 

“Since cybercriminals are first and foremost looking for confidential information, every possible effort should be made to ensure its safety. It’s really important that businesses understand the need for barriers to keep cybercriminals away and apply a variety of effective measures to meet their data protection requirements: backup copying, combatting data leakage caused by staff, repelling cyber-attacks and many others,” it said.

 

“It is worrying that so many businesses underestimate the crucial importance of MDM technologies, since the main asset being protected here remains sensitive corporate information – almost a quarter (23 per cent) of respondents said they had lost business data due to the loss or theft of mobile devices,” the statement said.

 

MDM enables businesses to:

• Apply restrictions to the installation and launch of software on corporate mobile devices. Corporate networks can be greatly harmed by the unfettered addition of unregulated new software.

• Support remote administration for smartphones and tablet, so that access can be blocked and information deleted if the device is ever lost or stolen.

• Make sure devices are protected with PIN codes and applications that access corporate data are protected with strong passwords.

• Deploy and control configurations and security policies on new employees’ mobile devices quickly and flexibly.

• Prevent sensitive corporate information leaks by application data control and encryption.

• Make sure high-quality anti-malware protection is used, especially for Android devices.

 

The survey, involving over 3,300 IT specialists in 22 countries worldwide, was conducted in conjunction with Kaspersky Lab.  –TradeArabia News Service