Mobile Devices Security

¶ … virtual environment has become more and more populated with devices and mechanisms that allow people to become increasingly more mobile. There has been a constant increase in the way in which people tend to act in their day-to-day activities by using their personal computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones and all kind of technology developments that allows them to be in contact with the rest of the world by the touch of a button.

These advancements however also determined an increased need for protecting these devices from cyber crime and threats that are no longer traditional and attackable with traditional means of action. More and more often, challenges related to the protection of information that is being transferred via the internet make the subject of research and technological improvements. There are several ways thru which security of mobile devices can be achieved or insured. On the one hand, there is the physical security of personal devices such as the mobile phone.

More precisely, currently there are services offered by providers of mobile services that allow for payment of insurance for loss of phone. Indeed, this aspect relates to the replacement of the device; yet, such offers are doubled by technological improvements of software that allows for the clear and up-to-date localization of one's device at almost any given time. An example in this sense is the service provided by Apple Inc. that allows the registration of all Apple devices on iCloud.

In this way, all registered devices under a single iCloud account can be tracked down thru the Internet. This applied to the mobile phone allows the owner of the phone to report the device as being lost and localized once the respective device is connected to a wireless connection. The Apple application "Find my phone" therefore allows the device to be localized whether it has been stolen or just misplaced.

Further, this application permits the owner of the iCloud account to remotely delete the content of the phone, if suspected of being stolen in order to allow a protection of the data stored on the phone. This example points out a mere functionality of a developed application that is enabled to cater for a basic security need. On the other hand, there are other more complex security considerations which demand more complex resolutions.

Statistics have pointed out that the corporate world is using extensively the mobility such devices provide to its employees in particular.

More precisely, "Extensive use of mobile devices connecting to corporate networks - 89% have mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets connecting to corporate networks (….) 65% allow personal devices to connect to corporate networks; 78% say there are more than twice as many personal devices connecting to corporate networks now than compared to two years ago" (Dimensional Research, 2012) This aspect comes to point out that there is an increased need for constant improvement in the security measures taken by companies and software developers that would allow a great safety in terms of data transfer and sharing in particular.

These security concerns do not only apply to the corporate world when discussing the complexity of security issues but rather it also targets the personal users that often affect the corporate platforms.

In particular, it must be pointed out that "Personal mobile devices that connect to corporate networks are extensive and growing and (…) lack of employee awareness about security policies ranked as having the greatest impact on the security of mobile data: 72% say careless employees are a greater security threat than hackers" (Dimensional Research, 2012) Therefore, it must be stressed that most of the threats come not necessarily from professional hackers but rather from individuals.

Recent studies have therefore concluded that the security of mobile devices depends on several factors that are human related. In particular, among the most difficult to handle threats are "the lack of employee awareness of security policies" (Dimensional Research, 2012) Therefore, even if the most advanced security settings would be made on a corporate device, if the employee is not aware of the way in which.