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George Anderson, Webroot: Mobile security software adoption low among consumers, better for BYOD according to Gartner
August 2013 by George Anderson, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Webroot
According to Gartner’s recent study<http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/...>
,
consumer adoption and willingness to pay for antivirus software on mobile devices is
low but the high use of personal mobile devices for work purposes means security
vendors have a chance to monetize on the BYOD trend.} }
"The increasing amount of malicious mobile apps and software, coupled with the
decline in PC sales means mobile devices are becoming the new battleground for
cyber-crime and a gateway to sensitive data. We’re already seeing this take hold -
during the first half of 2013 Android malware has doubled from 350,000 to nearly
750,000 malicious applications. As such it’s vital consumers and business alike
protect mobile devices.
"However, low adoption of antivirus software by consumers shows that there is some
complacency to overcome if we’re going to secure data - namely the belief that
mobiles are somehow unaffected by security issues, despite the fact that
smartphones are effectively mini-computers used in the same way as we’d use a PC.
"As a vendor, we could choose to ignore this and focus on businesses which need to
invest in security due to compliance issues, not to mention the need to protect the
valuable business data held on mobile devices. However, ultimately, consumers are
the people using business devices. So a lack of understanding at consumer level
could impact business device security. Businesses can put in place great mobile
security strategies but there is a level of responsibility at the end-user level.
Unless consumers start thinking about the security of their own mobile devices,
hackers and cyber criminals will win the battle for our data."
