Survey: email is greatest mobile security risk

- Gary Thayer, Editor

Nov. 7, 2005 -- (MobileVillage) -- According to new mobile security survey released today by Good Technology, IT professionals and business managers consider email to be the greatest source of security risk among the applications deployed on mobile devices, followed by corporate intranet applications.

In the poll of 600 US-based IT professionals and members of executive management at organizations ranging from 150 to 16,000 employees, 79 percent of respondents consider email to be the greatest source of security risk among the applications deployed on mobile devices, followed by corporate intranet applications, which 26 percent of respondents regard as the greatest vulnerability.

The survey was undertaken by Good Technology and conducted through Zoomerang, a provider of online market research.

48 percent of respondents stated that firewall vulnerability -- defined as the having to open firewall holes to allow inbound wireless device traffic, risk of denial of service attacks, or other unauthorized intrusion -- concerns them most. 30 percent of respondents are not likely at all to deploy a wireless solution that requires opening firewall ports, making perimeter security a top priority when selecting a mobile email solution.

29 percent of individuals surveyed selected handheld security -- defined as protecting data on the handheld if it is lost, stolen or misplaced -- as their top wireless security concern.

On-device data encryption remains top of mind for IT administrators. The survey indicated 59 percent will not deploy a solution that does not encrypt data on the device. In addition, 65 percent of individuals surveyed stated that wireless enforcement of virus protection, along with the ability to update virus files over the air, are very important handheld security features.

Remote control of password policy is considered a very important handheld security requirement by 55 percent of respondents; only 18 percent are comfortable with simple user name and password authentication, traditionally used as a primary layer of protection.

In addition, 57 percent of respondents believe that the ability to wirelessly specify applications that must be present on the device to be very important, demonstrating the increasing importance of handheld compliance with broader corporate security policy.

While the ability to detect and control applications on handhelds remains a top concern, the study concluded the majority of enterprises do not have standard operating procedure to address this issue; 70 percent of respondents do not have an automated mechanism to determine which applications mobile users have on their devices. Only half (53 percent) are currently able to enforce security and password policies consistently and effectively on devices without end-user dependency.

Coniciding with the release of its survey, Good today announced the upcoming availabilty of its latest mobile application called Good Mobile Defense, a security system for handhelds running Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone, Palm OS, and Symbian. Good Mobile Defense will be available in January 2006 as a stand alone product and as an extension to GoodLink and GoodAccess.

For more information on Good, see the company's summary page on MobileVillage.

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