Why BYOD security will be up to snuff by 2014

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By Marc van Zadelhoff, Vice President, Strategy and Product Management, IBM Security System

Here is a bold suggestion: mobile technology actually could be more secure than traditional computing by 2014.

While this prediction may seem far-fetched, it’s based on existing security control trends. Companies are adopting best practices that are rapidly enabling mobile computing to become more secure than traditional desktop computing. This is being led by chief information security officers who are driving change to ensure critical mobile security needs are addressed today.

While it’s true that mobile phones and tablets are traditionally thought as consumer-oriented devices, they are a great tool for enterprise use. Established security best practices for Bring Your Own Device to work scenarios, combined with emerging technology, are making mobile devices increasingly more secure.

For instance, a growing number of organizations now require employees to adopt solutions on their mobile device that helps keep personal data separate from corporate data. And encryption and remote wiping systems are available that can now protect and eliminate confidential data, in cases when devices get lost or stolen.

Elements like physical location, network identification, voice recognition, eye, and facial recognition are increasingly being used for authentication on mobile devices. And sandbox technology, that uses a testing environment to isolate untested code, is helping to minimize breaches by malicious apps, and in turn has increased the level of defense against malware threats.

Additionally, even though application vulnerabilities have become the primary attack vector for enterprises, today’s hybrid and native mobile apps are more likely to be developed with security as an integral part of the development process.

Given these advances in technology, security officers will have more finite control over mobile devices than they’ve had over traditional computers. Going forward, mobile devices no longer have to be a security threat, but instead it can be seen as a “do-over” in order to get it right.