As smartphone users turn to their devices to complete more tasks, hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities.
People are increasingly turning to their phones to complete their regular daily activities and as this trend grows, so does the number of mobile security attacks.
Hackers see the use of smartphones for personal and work purposes as a prime opportunity.
The more people use their smartphones to complete work and personal tasks, the more hackers are seeing vulnerabilities that they can exploit. This, according the fifth annual Mobile Security Index (MSI) from Verizon.
That report included a survey of over 600 people with responsibilities in security strategy, policy and management. Its results showed that around 45 percent of companies had experienced a breach that involved a smartphone or tablet within the prior year. That was a substantial increase over the 20 percent that was recorded in the survey conducted the year before.
Companies that had a global presence were the most likely to be affected by mobile security attacks.
Among companies with a global presence, 61 percent said that they were affected. This was notably higher than the rate among companies that had only a local presence, where only 43 percent had been affected.
Furthermore, over 70 percent of surveyed companies said that smartphones or tablets were highly critical to the smooth operation of their business. Nearly 20 percent of employees had transferred company data to a personal cloud account before exiting a company.
On the whole, nearly two in three CISOs across all surveyed regions said that working remotely increased the risk of cyberattack to their organization.
“Mobile devices have become the center of our lives,” said Viakoo CEO Bud Broomhead. Viakoo is an automated IoT cybersecurity hygiene provider. “This enabled threat actors to bridge from your mobile phone into virtually any other part of your life.”
Broomhead went on to explain that hackers were now holders of more detailed information about individuals than has ever been the case, which is a mobile security trend that impacts both businesses and consumers alike. Furthermore, as the majority of companies support some level of BYOD, it means that hacks at a consumer level can lead to an enterprise breach.
