The world’s mobile worker population is set to grow exponentially as devices such as notebooks and tablet PCs get thinner and smaller, but allied with this trend is a growing threat to organisations’ security if devices carrying sensitive information are lost or stolen, IDC warns.
IDC says that protecting corporate intellectual property on laptops, mobile phones and converged mobile devices is at the top of the list for many IT departments, making mobile devices security software a hot growth area.
IDC estimates that worldwide mobile security license and maintenance revenues currently exceed US$200m and will grow at a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through until 2011.
The main security concern a few years ago was protecting corporate desktops from hackers and preventing malicious code from entering the LAN or WAN via wired connections to the internet.
Going forward, the popularity of mobile devices and ubiquitous access to wireless networks require new security measures.
IDC says mobile devices represent yet another endpoint that IT must secure due to the varying methods by which they are procured, the different operating systems they run on, and the unique ways in which they are used.
“For most enterprises today, device-based security, such as device wipe/lock and encryption of the data on the device, are the most important features that a mobile security solution must contain,” says Stacy Sudan, research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Enterprise Software.
“But in the future, secure content and threat management features like mobile firewall, mobile VPN, and mobile antivirus will begin to gain increased importance for companies seeking to secure further aspects of enterprise mobility.”
Earlier this week a Cork-based company launched the first electronic lost-and-found tagging service for mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
Yougetitback.com unveiled the e-tag, an application for mobiles and PDAs that prevents non-user calls being made and provides a tracking system in the event of a device being lost or stolen. The e-tag service also incorporates a denial of service, remote delete, data backup and recovery and guaranteed replacement functions.
By John Kennedy
