40 Percent Of Organizations Planning To Deploy Mobile Phone Data Encryption

PRESS RELEASE

London, United Kingdom – 22 June 2010 – Goode Intelligence announced today that 40 percent of organisations surveyed in its Mobile Security Survey (Part Three) are planning to deploy mobile phone data encryption. Of these organisations, one hundred percent plan to include encryption on employees’ mobile phones from September 2010 onwards.

This groundbreaking survey, carried out in partnership with Acumin Consulting is the most comprehensive vendor-independent survey on mobile phone security to date and provides a snapshot of the state of mobile security within organisations across the globe.

“The threat of data loss from a mobile phone is still relatively low but with the rising adoption of data-centric applications on smartphones, including enterprise applications and financial services, we feel that the threat will rise from the second-half of 2010 onwards” said Alan Goode, Managing Director, Goode Intelligence. “Research for the new GI Analyst Report on Smartphone Security has discovered that enterprises still do not feel that the threat to company data stored on mobile phones is high enough to warrant protection in the same manner that a laptop or a USB memory stick is. Only 33 percent of organisations polled are protecting their mobile phones with encryption products and services. However, you can now store gigabytes of information on mobile phones that is as business critical as the information that employees are storing on their laptops or USB memory sticks.”

Threat of data loss from a mobile phone set to rise

The survey reveals that while nearly 43 percent of organisations currently feel that the threat from mobile phone data loss is low, this number changes significantly for the perceived threat by 2011 with only 29 percent continuing to believe that the risk is low while 29 percent forecast that the risk will be medium and 28 percent feel that the risk will be high or very high.

“The threat to organisations in losing valuable information that is stored on ever-increasingly powerful smartphones, is a real one and one that will grow” said Alan Goode. “UK Government figures suggest that in the UK, around 1.3 million mobile phones are stolen annually and that 28 percent of all robberies involve theft of a mobile phone. Organisations have the capability to protect their mobile phone assets by deploying mobile phone encryption. They have a choice of out-of-the-box encryption services provided by the mobile platform vendor, be it Apple iPhone or Blackberry devices, or to choose third-party products that could be deployed across multiple mobile phone platforms and have the capability to be integrated into existing endpoint encryption services.”

Resourcing for the Future

The survey shows that there are important challenges ahead for resourcing. Gemma Paterson, Marketing Manager, Acumin Consulting said “With 40 percent of organisations planning on recruiting for mobile security roles in the next two years it is reassuring to see that mSecurity is being taken seriously and becoming more of a priority for the IT and Security functions. It is essential to make organisations aware of this developing challenge and seeing as currently only 13 percent of organisations currently protect from mobile viruses, IT Security Managers will need to consider updating skill-sets and resourcing adequately for teams to ensure they are prepared for the risks arising from this transformation in the way we carry out business.”

The GI mSecurity Survey findings are published in three separate reports to cover the distinct areas that the survey investigates. All three reports will include the results of the generic areas covered.

The titles of the three survey reports are:

Part 1 - mSecurity 2009 Survey Report - Network Access and Authentication

Part 2 - mSecurity 2009 Survey Report - Anti-Virus

Part 3 - mSecurity 2009 Survey Report - Protection (data and voice), to include encryption, data backup and anti-theft

All three survey reports are available to download free of charge from the Goode Intelligence website (www.goodeintelligence.com).

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About Acumin Consulting

Acumin is the leading provider of Information Risk Management staff in Europe. Established in1998, our specialist team of consultants have unrivalled knowledge of the Information Security, Business Continuity, Storage and Data Protection markets. We supply both permanent and contract staff at all levels to industries spanning all sectors from first tier banks to global consultancies and software companies across EMEA. For more information visit www.acumin.co.uk

About Goode Intelligence

Goode Intelligence (GI) is a specialist provider of Information Security and Mobile Commerce research and analysis to global technology and telecommunications organisations. For more information about Goode Intelligence and the Mobile Phone Security Report Series, visit www.goodeintelligence.com