CompTIA, Cybersecurity Experts Call for Industry Best Practices as Increasing Adoption of Mobile Technologies Raises New Concerns
In today's "post-PC" world, businesses of all sizes, as well as policy makers at all levels, need to be ready to address and manage increasing security and privacy challenges, found a panel of experts at CompTIA's mobile security briefing. Several dozen Hill staff, policy makers, security and privacy experts and technology advocates participated in the discussion.
"Mobile technologies are helping to increase productivity and competitiveness, they are a terrific platform for innovation, but we must also consider the vulnerabilities that mobility introduces and be prepared to address them," said Todd Thibodeaux, president and chief executive officer, CompTIA. "With more companies adopting a 'BYOD' or bring your own device policy, it's more critical than ever that businesses and policy makers consider the security and privacy implications of these actions."
According to a recently released CompTIA study, more than 70 percent of IT staff surveyed cited security considerations as the greatest risk involved in supporting mobility. As mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets extend both physical and temporal boundaries of the workplace, businesses are under increasing pressure to create new policies and procedures to keep the mobile enterprise accessible, available and secure.
"We're seeing greater awareness in the enterprise space of the need to protect both company-issued and personal devices. However, a major effort is needed in education, research and industry collaboration to counter the rising threats to mobile security," said Andrew Hoog, chief executive officer, viaForensics.
"Mobile devices and working in a mobile environment opens up new vulnerabilities, particularly in the area of privacy. Having clear industry best practices can help establish guidelines for and encourage good, pro-consumer behaviors," said Allan Friedman, PhD, Research Director for Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings Institution.
The CompTIA study found that 84 percent of those surveyed use their smartphones for light work such as email or web browsing, while tablets had even wider range of uses. CompTIA regularly benchmarks business attitudes, purchase plans and technology preferences to help inform the business strategy of its member companies and public policy development.