Study: Enterprises Need to Address Cell Phone Security

Posted 12/04/2009 at 6:02am | by Paul Lilly

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Enterprises take note: According to a survey from ABI Research, cell phone security for enterprise devices is seriously lacking, and a little misunderstood as well.

ABI Research pinged 250 senior executives in the U.S. and found that while 41 percent said they believe mobile phones are more at risk to interception than email and 39 percent believed the risk was the same, relatively few of them reported having adequate protection, such as encryption, in place.

"Effective email security has become routine but our research shows most businesses do ont apply anything like the same level of robust security to cell phone calls," Stan Schatt, an analyst with ABI, wrote in the report. "Equally concerning is that a significant number of people who identified themselves as being responsible for cell phone voice call security incorrectly believe the organizations' mobile calls have been protected when they have not."

What's frightening about all this is that according to the survey results, some 79 percent of organizations admitted to talking about sensitive or otherwise confidential information over the phone at least once a week, and more than half on a daily basis, but only 18 percent have "explicit mobile voice call security solutions in place."

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