News Feature | November 10, 2015

MobileIron "State of App Security" Report Stresses The Importance Of MDM To Your IT Clients

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

MobileIron “State of App Security” Report Stresses The Importance Of MDM To Your IT Clients

Mobile apps are an integral part of today’s business landscape. The proliferation of mobile devices and mobile apps, coupled with recent mobile attacks such as XcodeGhost, Stagefright, Key Raider, and YiSpecter, means that an unprecedented amount of mobile business data has been put at risk. In fact, 1 in 10 enterprises have at least one compromised device accessing enterprise data, according to MobileIron’s new “State of App Security” report, which examines how companies are using and protecting mobile apps.

“As more business processes are mobilized, hackers look to mobile apps to capitalize on enterprises’ inability to prevent and detect mobile threats,” said Mike Raggo, director of security research at MobileIron.

As the future of work evolves toward mobility, cybercriminals will leverage apps to create data breaches and other misappropriation of data. Malware detection company FireEye identified more than 4,000 infected apps on the App Store and mobile app risk management company Appthority found that almost every organization with at least 100 iOS devices had at least one infected device.

The challenge with mobile devices and apps is that the user — and not the IT administrator — is generally in control. The MobileIron study found that more than 53 percent of enterprises have at least one device that is not in compliance with corporate security policies.

“Today’s organizations have far too many disparate security technologies that are rarely fully integrated with each other. Even when integrated, they rarely include information about mobile devices and apps,” Raggo said. “The good news for companies using an enterprise mobility management solution is that they have the information they need about the state of mobile devices and apps to protect corporate information.”

Businesses using only legacy security technologies, says Raggo, are vulnerable to breach. Explain to your clients that monitoring mobile devices can provide them with a number of proactive and reactive security measures such as the ability to detect malware and risky behaviors, to quarantine devices, and to perform selective wipes.