How to Address the 6 Major Challenges of Mobile Computing Security

By CIOReview | Friday, February 14, 2014

MILFORD, MA: While some companies are providing network access and application support for mobile devices like the smartphones and tablets; others are designing and developing new applications for them. Android devices, iPhones, and even the Windows phones are seen as business opportunities by enterprises for revenue growth, better communication and, of course for cost cutting; however, a majority of businesses are concerned about integrity, privacy and security of data, reported Jon Oltsik of Network World.

Though mobile computing is the new trend at the work place, the Chief Information Security Officers of large and small enterprises look at it with suspicion. Mobile computing involves securing thousands of mobile devices along with the applications and content which exist on them. As these gadgets are the employees’ possessions, it becomes all the more difficult for the security department to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the company’s property and data.

As per the survey conducted by ESG, the global advisory firm using IT market research, to identify the challenges with mobile computing security:

43 percent of security professionals said that protecting data confidentiality and integrity when sensitive data is accessed on a mobile device over a network was definitely a challenge; while 41 percent said protection of data confidentiality and integrity when sensitive data is stored on a mobile device.

41 percent felt that enforcing mobile security policies was a challenge.

36 percent said that the integration of mobile security technologies with other enterprise security technologies was a big task.

35 percent said that educating the users on the best practices for mobile computing security was a huge challenge.

34 percent of the security professionals said that establishing the right workflow and processes between the security team and other IT groups.

34 percent of the professionals said that managing malware and other threats was difficult; while 34 percent said that training the IT staff members on mobile security would help.

The problem surrounding data discovery, classification, access, storage and usage are further aggravated by mobile computing. Companies establish weak security policies, or policies which are rigid and which cannot be executed with the security measures that exist. To overcome this issue, organizations need to lock down the most sensitive data by opening privileged account security with vendors like Courion, CyberArk, and Lieberman. It is therefore necessary to estimate the existing security policies before updating them. The other most important aspect to be looked into is shortage in mobile computing security skills. This can be overcome too by including trainings, services and mobile security products in place.

Where there are problems and threats, there are always solutions; however, organizations need to ensure that they work on the challenges for bettering their security.