Mobile Security: A Look Ahead

Fueled by widespread adoption of employee-owned devices in the workplace and the explosion of mobile applications, mobile device security is under heavy debate in both the academic and industry security communities. Businesses and government agencies are struggling to find some sense of control at a time when employee-owned devices now access some of the most sensitive data in an organization. Various approaches and solutions have been proposed, ranging from device-based intrusion detection systems, execution isolation through application sandboxing and bare metal hypervisors, ontology-based firewalls, behavior-based detection, to cloud-based protection through the use of VPN technology. The challenge of heterogeneous hardware and software platforms, such as iOS vs. Android OS, adds yet another layer of complexity to creating a comprehensive solution. The authors provide an overview of the current threats based on data collected from observing the interaction of 75 million users with the Internet. Extrapolating this data gives an insight into what threats wait on the horizon.