More and more people are using their iPhones and Droids to stay connected to the office during the holiday season. Whether it’s for checking email or doing a little online shopping, their ubiquity has made them very alluring targets for malware authors and cybercrooks.
As eSecurity Planet reports, the convenience of mobile devices has given rise to new security threats that can compromise both consumers’ personal data and the proprietary information and systems they access for work.
To stay one step ahead of the hackers, companies — at minimum — need to inventory smartphones used for business and establish mechanisms for remotely wiping data stored on lost or stolen devices.
This is especially important, security experts say, because, 62 percent of users expected holiday season smartphone activities to involve accessing sensitive or confidential work information.
Smartphone adoption skyrocketed in 2010. According to Visiongain, Android sales leapt 886 percent this year, fast over-taking the popular game-changing iPhone.
When workers head home for the holidays, they’ll be taking these new smartphones with them.
According to a survey on holiday habits conducted by Symantec, a whopping 90 percent expect to use smartphones to engage in at least some business activity. Let’s look their anticipated holiday uses, associated risks, and what can be done to neutralize them.