Threats Everywhere
With cloud and social media adding new dimensions to mobility, endpoint security has a whole new—and complex—meaning
There has been an incredible shift in the way “security” was defined within organizations. Enterprises are realizing that advanced security is no longer an option but a critical need. In 2015, most of the bigger organizations largely focused on risk-based security implementations. For smaller organizations, it was time to beef up their security infrastructures.
The fast paced internet access technologies such as 4G LTE, 3G and carrier Wi-Fi have made enterprises more vulnerable in terms of external exposure and customer control. There has been a tremendous increase in the usage of social media, blogging and cloud storage. While all these new platforms offer businesses many advantages, it also makes things more challenging from an information security standpoint.
This has also led to the change in the buying patterns of security solutions among enterprises and CIOs. No longer do they believe that the legacy network firewalls, protocols, filters and web trackers are sufficient to protect the networks of the company.
As per Gartner, enterprise security buyers in India and elsewhere are realizing that they need to put more emphasis and spending on application security, security monitoring, security policy and program development, and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) to combat the growing threats.
It further states that risk and security leaders’ ability to steer their organizations through the intersection of digital business and increasing IT risk and cyber security threats will create resilience, differentiate their organizations, define their legacies and shape the ways that future enterprises apply technology.
Technology Trends
With the increasing number of people accessing data on the go due to mass usage of smartphones, the risk of data breach and data theft has grown innumerable times.
According to Cisco, smart mobile devices and connections are projected to represent 72 percent of total mobile devices and connections by 2020 — up from 36 percent in 2015. Smart devices are forecasted to generate 98 percent of mobile data traffic by 2020.
There has been a growing trend where enterprise users are moving to mobile phones to share data and access company networks due to the mobility factor. However, the risks associated with smartphone usage are much bigger than what appears to be. Any smart phone with a high-speed connection can be affected by Bluetooth or MMS viruses, as well as malicious software through email, instant messaging W-Fi and internet downloads.
Moreover, with the growing usage of wearable technologies at the workplace, the demand for various mobile apps for both office and home is also set to increase. This will further compound an already complex scenario.