More Than 70% Of Security Pros Say Android Poses Biggest Smartphone Security Risk

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 6, 2011 – nCircle, the leading provider of automated security and compliance auditing solutions, today announced the results of the nCircle 2011 Smartphone Study. The results are based on a survey of 551 respondents in the IT security industry, including senior management, IT operations, security professionals and risk and audit managers.

Highlights of the study include:

71% of respondents identify Google Android devices as presenting the highest level of smartphone security risk, a considerable increase from 39% in 2010.

Security concern about Apple iOS devices is also high, with 60% of respondents assigning the highest level of smartphone security risk to these devices.

62% of respondents say their companies have a smartphone security policy, compared with 58% in 2010.

Only 56% of respondents say their companies enforce their smartphone policy, a dramatic decrease compared with 66% in 2010.

“Presumably, the sudden adoption of Android and iOS in the enterprise is behind the inability of many firms to enforce their smartphone security policies. It’s reasonable to assume that the consumerization of IT is driving enterprise adoption of these devices, but policies written around Research In Motion products are not enforceable on iOS and Android devices. It’s possible that many firms haven’t updated their policies to reflect the new consumer smartphone reality. Unfortunately, it looks like these important policies have fallen to the wayside, at least temporarily,” noted Oliver Lavery, director of security research and development for nCircle.

“The huge growth in Android security concerns this year is also very striking. The appearance of rogue apps in the Android app store, coupled with several high-profile Android OS security issues, is probably behind these justifiable concerns,” Lavery continued. “In comparison, Apple has been relatively successful with their walled garden approach to iOS device content, so security professionals, while still wary, are less concerned about Apple products.”

The survey was conducted between March 17 and March 25, 2011, and covered a range of security topics. To see the complete study, please visit: http://www.ncircle.com/index.php?s=resources_surveys_Survey-2011-06-06

About nCircle

nCircle is the leading provider of automated security and compliance auditing solutions. More than 5,500 enterprises, government agencies and service providers around the world rely on nCircle's proactive solutions to manage and reduce security risk and achieve compliance on their networks. nCircle has won numerous awards for growth, innovation, customer satisfaction and technology leadership and has been ranked among the top 100 best places to work in the San Francisco Bay Area. nCircle is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with regional offices throughout the United States and in London and Toronto. Additional information about nCircle is available at www.ncircle.com.