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OPINION■
By Brenda Suarez, director of corporate communications, Airwide Solutions
THE issue of mobile security is becoming ever more often quickly outdated. Banning smart phones from
prevalent in the workplace today as more and more work isn’t a viable option either as employees will
employees use mobile devices to access corporate continue to use whatever communications device they
information and communicate with colleagues and have to make their lives easier, regardless of the secu-
customers remotely. Due to this, mobile security rity risk it poses to their employer.
threats such as data leakage from lost devices and The real answer lies with the mobile operators
attacks from messaging-borne malware are becoming providing appropriate and tailored solutions that
more apparent. ensure an enterprise’s high-risk data is secure.
Although the mobile phone is not a new arena for Mobile operators have mobile security solutions
corporate security threats, it is still hugely overshad- which are deployed on a network level and are both
owed by the more traditional PC-based threats. controllable and easily upgraded. Many network oper-
However, with record numbers of spam hitting ators currently police potential fraudsters on a volun-
employees’ mobiles on an hourly basis, it’s time to shift tary basis, but as messaging services continue to grow
some of the focus in security from the online world to and become more complex, networks need a compre-
the realm of mobile communication. Indeed, McAfee’s hensive range of features such as anti-spam and virus-
Mobile Security Report 2008 identified that some 72pc filtering software, equipment identity register
of mobile users were concerned about the security of (EIR) systems and blacklisting, anti-spoofing and
mobile services. anti-flooding technology.
Decipher Inc has also investigated this area and Using a variety of mobile security technologies,
recently published the results of an interesting survey, including anti-spam and anti-spoof, as well as next-
where 70pc of respondents said they access what they generation gateways, operators can detect abnormal
consider to be ‘sensitive data’ on their smart phone in patterns in messaging traffic, confirm legitimate
order to work outside the office. Some 85pc of respon- senders, filter content and block suspicious messages.
dents also said that enterprises should deploy protec- Filtering content also helps the fight against the
tion on any mobile device accessing data or systems. spread of viruses and trojans. Blacklisting permits
This survey showed just how much company- users to block certain phone numbers and incoming
sensitive data is accessible via company mobile devices. messages coming from these phones, while EIR systems
Although it’s encouraging to see businesses arm their have proved to be a very useful tool in handset fraud
employees with the tools to make the best use of their prevention.
time away from the office, they also need to be careful Operators can also provide subscribers with the
that in doing so they also fulfil their duty of care to means to enforce corporate usage policies (ensuring
protect their employees, along with their internal and mobile data compliance to existing LAN acceptable
customer data. use policies) and extend this capability from internet
So what is the answer? Many people assume that the access to embrace messaging and safeguard users from
PC security model of software downloads and firewalls spam, phishing and virus attacks, while also protecting
provides the best solution. However, handset-based their own network.
solutions are limited as they only protect a very small By providing corporate organisations with a combina-
percentage of mobile users. Also, with mobile devices tion of virus filters, subscriber controls and individual
constantly being upgraded and replaced with higher profiles, operators can help equip enterprises with the
specification devices, security software that is added is tools they need to protect their data and reputation.
September 2008 Knowledge Ireland 21
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