A study done by B2B International’s
Global Corporate IT Security Risks has depicted shocking security trends among corporate
in Africa. According to the statistics, only 17% of companies in South Africa
have a fully developed mobile device security policy for their business
networks. Meanwhile, IT security breaches involving cell/mobile phones and
tablets are increasing geometrically. Despite this disheartening revelation,
many companies have not yet laid out plans to curb the use of personal devices
for work-related purposes.
IT security incidents involving
mobile devices already take many different forms, and can only grow more
diverse and widespread over time.
11% of respondents said that mobile
devices have been the largest sources of confidential data leakage over the
past 12 months. They caused more critical data leakages than employee fraud which
rests at 9% and accidental leaks from sharing data by staff, 5%, or corporate
espionage which takes 2% of the blame.
The reason is obvious; more mobile
devices especially smart-phones and tablets are being used at work daily.
Employees use these devices for work-related purposes as well as personal
agendas. Having important business and personal information on your device is
certainly convenient but this can pose a substantial risk to company IT security.
The use internal corporate rules
governing their use of mobile devices, commonly known as IT security policies,
can greatly reduce the business risks associated with smart-phones and tablets.
However a well-developed mobile device security policy tends to be the
exception rather than the rule. However, in many corporate, these policies are
either not fully developed or not deployed at all.
Many corporate blame the underdevelopment
of the policies on lack of resources. i.e time and money. Corporate
institutions that had a mobile device security policy in place said that
insufficient funds had been allocated for the policy.
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it comes to security breach by mobile devices. ESET Mobile Security for android,
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