Apr 19, 2014

Providing a secure medium for sharing business files has become a difficult task for many organizations as more sophisticated threats emerge. These risks could harm devices and compromise sensitive business data, effectively leading to costly fines. With mobile hardware taking a prominent role in company operations, the need to protect data is more essential than ever and will require a solution that has safety measures built in.

Many business executives worry about the state of their assets, especially as a new process comes that could lead to information loss and numerous other risks. Mobile devices can provide substantial benefits, but IT professionals must first ensure that the equipment is protected against advancing dangers. Dynamic Business noted that although the hazards are rising for this hardware, few owners have taken the steps to install malware detection software, enterprise file sharing solutions or any other similar measures to protect their device.

This lack of preparation could make the equipment fall victim to more than 2,000 malware strains in existence on any given day, which could mean companies losing data or having manipulated information in their system. On Android devices, the threat is significantly higher than other products as the operating system accounted for 97 percent of mobile malware in 2013, according to TheNextWeb. The popularity of Android devices is rising, making the danger increase at a faster pace than other mobile devices. As this risk continues to grow, it’s imperative for organizations to ensure that they have oversight over user access and understand where information is at all times.

“Once this data is accessed, the phone’s owner has no control over who sees it and how it is used. Modern mobile phones are less of a phone and more of a mobile computer. The unchecked use of apps can pose serious risks to a user’s privacy,” security expert Catalin Cosoi told Dynamic Business.

Solving BYOD threats
The bring-your-own-device trend has become a prominent part of business operations, and is not expected to die down anytime soon, making it necessary to ensure that security measures are in place. InformationWeek contributor Thomas Claburn noted that IT staff should go beyond the device level and ensure that they look at other potential layers for security. Many businesses have approached this by using secure file sharing platforms, protecting company applications and applying encryption file sharing platforms. These steps will help ensure that organizations are able to maintain their information without being overly restrictive of employee processes.

“Organization have to try to keep up with device threats, even though they’re likely to miss some of them,” Claburn wrote. “So it’s important to maintain a flexible policy-based control system on the network. One layer of defense is not enough.”