With today’s smart phones, more and more people are accessing their work networks using their phone. With the increased convenience of using mobile phones, comes increased risk.
Recently, research has been conducted into the security of mobile phones. Among the alarming things found:
- A Fortune 15 company found that 5 percent or 25,000 of its mobile devices were infected with malware.
- More than 76% of consumers surveyed use their smart phones or tablets to access sensitive personal or business information, including:
- 51% to enter or modify passwords;
- 43% to access banking or credit card statements;
- 30% to access utility bills;
- 20% to share financial information such as credit card numbers;
- 18% to access employer’s proprietary information;
- 17% to access medical records;
- and 16% to share social security numbers.
These findings have critical implications, for your network security. If your employees are connecting to your network from an infected phone, then there is the possibility that malware could be installed on your network. You user names and passwords could be captured. In either case, the security of your network has been compromised. Your data and your computers themselves are at risk.
There are now companies with security software for mobile phones. Just like your server, and desktop computer, your mobile phone should have security software on it, and it should be kept up-to-date.
More information on the findings of the security research can be found here. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/foremski/juniper-extends-beyond-the-router-and-into-mobile-security/1559?tag=content;search-results-river