It was only nine years ago that smartphones entered the market. Employees were already bringing their personal phones to work, but smartphones suddenly allowed access to corporate e-mail, making it easier to respond to work-related demands after work or during business travel. Then document-sharing added to the ease of doing business on mobile devices. The evolution of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and corporate-owned-personally-enabled (COPE) started slowly, and then accelerated with the proliferation of apps for every business and personal need. While enterprise employees enjoyed the freedom and productivity of always connected, IT admins were blindsided with the new and growing problem of protecting corporate intellectual property from the avalanche of unprotected personal property employees brought to work.
The security model used by IT departments was originally designed to protect an enterprise network and company-issued PCs, not the personal smartphones and tablets employees started bringing into the workplace. With both BYOD and cyber attacks increasing, the scramble to analyse the facts and figures ensued in hopes of finding a way to manage the moving target of mobile security.
What are the numbers? What are the risks?
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