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Survey says 1 in 4 organizations have had issues with mobile malware

Categories: Android, iOS / iPhone OS
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, April 19th, 2012 at 2:52 AM
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Getting a virus on your computer is bad enough, but getting one on your phone is a whole other story. All your personal information leaks, and sometimes that includes the login credentials for many of the services you use. But how big of a problem is mobile malware? Goode Intelligence has had a go at quantifying the issue, and what they have to say isn’t pretty: 24% of the organizations they surveyed reported that they had to deal with infected devices during 2011. Back in 2010 that number was just 9%. How many companies enforce the use of some sort of anti-virus software on their smartphones? Less than 1 in 5.

What other sort of data did the Goode folks discover? When it comes to which platform is the most adopted within companies, the answer is Apple’s iOS. More specific data wasn’t provided. Also interesting is the fact that over 66% of the companies surveyed are letting their employees use their own devices. No more “work phone” or “personal phone”, these days people just have one. What’s concerning is that over half of these people who pick out their own device don’t even bother using encryption. Wonderful news if you’re the type who’s interested in corporate espionage, but stomach wrenching if you’ve got sales people out in the world with highly confidential data.

So how should you protect both yourself? Don’t be an idiot. By that we mean don’t download any applications that look suspicious. It’s also good form to use a password on your device. Not a four digit pin, not a pattern you draw with your finger, but an actual password like the one you have to type in to access Facebook. You should also setup remote wiping. On an iPhone it takes just a few minutes thanks to iCloud. On Android there’s a free solution out there from F-Secure.

Be safe!

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • http://antoinerjwright.com Antoine RJ Wright

    I am sorry you had to publish this… there are holes of all kinds in those numbers, and the interpretation of those numbers.

    If organizations are dealing with malware on mobiles which are connected to company servers, then the problem isn’t the users or their devices, but the policies those organizations have not implemented. There is a good chance that the reason that the number seems so high is because of the number of companies who contributed to the survey who most likely have no one (or just one) person making the decisions about what mobiles can do connected to the enterprise systems.

    Infected mobile devices? What do they mean infected? Is this just the presence of applications that are leaking data? Or, is this an app or series of apps which are compromising the integrity of the enterprise’s data or processes? Goode seems to be much better at marketing a perception of a problem than actually stating what the problem is. And given the percentages without the numbers of those surveyed, come on, easy stat invalidation trick in the book.