FINAL WORD
UNDERSTANDING
AND OVERCOMING
THE RISKS OF A
MOBILE WORLD
While the adoption of mobile devices in the physical
and virtual enterprise space offers tangible benefits,
there are also challenges that IT staff have to overcome,
in order to provi de a safe and secure environment,
writes Ian Lowe, Senior Manager of Product Marketing,
Identity Assurance, with HID Global.
W
e live in a hyper-connected
world. Everywhere you
go, everywhere you look,
you will be able to witness people
and organisations interacting with
each other through the internet via a
multitude of devices, applications and
services. The hyper-connected reality of
today has been driven forward by many
elements but, in recent years, it has been
the increased productivity, flexibility and
convenience offered by mobile devices
that has been a major proponent.
Google’s Larry Page may have said it
best when he said “We are no longer in
a mobile first world; we are in a mobile
only world”.
The use of mobile devices, which includes
notebooks, smartphones and tablets
is trending upwards. These devices are
key elements of the modern technology
ecosystem, and smartphones are
leading the charge. IDC’s Worldwide
Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows
that the global smartphone market grew
13% year-on-year in Q2 2015, with
341.5-million shipments. The growth
is primarily due to gains in emerging
94
INTELLIGENTCIO
markets such as the Middle East and
Africa and APEJ.
In the enterprise space, the adoption of
mobile devices is rapid, as employees and
customers look for greater productivity
and convenience. With a smart mobile
device and sufficient IT infrastructure,
an enterprise’s employees can access
company resources and interact with
customers from anywhere in the world.
Customers, likewise, benefit from a higher
level of service and are, now, closer than
ever to their suppliers.
Understanding the challenges
By adopting mobile devices and concepts
like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD),
enterprises are at risk of exposure to
threats such as data breaches, malware
and even compliance violations by their
own employees. In mature markets this is
plain to see – in the United States, 90%
of federal government employees are
using mobile devices in the workplace
but just 11% of those employees adhere
to mobile security best practices. These
results are part of the 2014 Mobilometer
Tracker: Mobility, Secure and the Pressure
www.intelligentcio.com