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'Firms unprepared for mobile malware security incidents'

Dubai, July 2, 2014

Security teams lack the tools and knowledge to detect mobile device security incidents and to proactively investigate and resolve those incidents before major damage is done, according to a research report.
 
The report by AccessData, a leader in incident resolution solutions, and Gigaom Research, revealed the growing complexities of mobile security and the limitations of ‘preventive, policy-driven’ solutions that are not designed to detect and respond to mobile security incidents that bypass defenses.
 
The ‘Mobile security and incident readiness: preparing for threats’ report advises InfoSec teams to expand their rapid incident detection and response capabilities to mobile devices that have access to sensitive data.
 
A significant percentage of organisations are taking virtually no steps to ensure that mobile devices (company issued and BYOD) with access to corporate data are indeed secure, it said.
 
The report found that even fewer firms have procedures in place to launch a meaningful response should a security incident involving mobile devices occur.
Experienced forensic examiners are challenged in extracting data from mobile devices, while data investigations extend beyond the early days of emails, SMS messages and call logs to analyze hidden or stolen data in applications, volatile data, multi-media and geolocation, it said.
 
Michael Finneran, the author of the report, said: “In speaking with the various organisations, we found that many rely too heavily on their mobile device and mobile application management systems to handle mobile security.
 
“The preventive controls MDM offers are important, yet with the increase in mobile incidents, complicated by the sheer volume and diversity of devices and terabytes of data, security solutions with visibility and capabilities to detect and resolve incidents are in dire need.”
 
Lee Reiber, VP of mobile forensics of AccessData, said: “Our customers tell us their biggest challenge is the limitations of mobile solutions, from the collection of data on all company devices, to the analysis of mobile data which takes a great deal of time and resources. Our advice is for companies to implement security plans and enterprise technologies that incorporate proactive mobile prevention, detection and response, to gain greater visibility and control of their mobile data and devices.”
 
The report recommended that proactive planning for incident readiness on mobile devices should be done as a part of the development of mobile security plans and policies.
 
The companies should look for advanced security tools with deep mobile device visibility that proactively collect and store key information over time which is useful for detecting security incidents, understanding the root cause and scoping the full extent of what happened, it said.
 
It also suggested to integrate mobile device visibility including access to call logs and data with the automation of mobile threat identification, analysis and resolution.
 
With the dramatic increase in threats affecting mobile devices such as data leakage, mobile malware, insider threats and hacker compromises, enterprises need to look beyond current MDM/MAM solutions and invest in strengthening their mobile device rapid detection and response capabilities, it added. - TradeArabia News Service



Tags: Mobile | Security | Malware |

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