Key Mobile-Device Security Concerns

By Rich Campagna, Subbu Iyer, and Ashwin Krishnan

Part of the Mobile Device Security For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, can provide large productivity gains and anytime/anywhere access to corporate data and applications. This flexibility isn't without its challenges, however. Here are some of the issues related to mobile device deployments that you need to protect against:

Loss and theft: These are major concerns, with hundreds of thousands of mobile devices being lost or stolen each year. Keep in mind that the most valuable thing lost with the device is more than likely the data on it rather than the device itself. Protecting against loss and theft is critically important.
Malware and viruses: 2010 marked the first time that smartphone and tablet malware and viruses really started to become top of mind for enterprise IT managers. These issues will more than likely increase in quantity moving forward, so you need to plan for that with your mobile deployments.
Inadvertent data leakage: Mobile devices frequently combine personal and enterprise applications, such as e-mail. Even the most well-meaning users might inadvertently send sensitive corporate data outside of the organization.
Public Wi-Fi hotspots: Today's mobile devices combined with the nearly ubiquitous public Wi-Fi hotspots make it easy for employees to connect to open, potentially insecure networks. Protecting corporate data as it transits these networks is critical.