Apps are everywhere today, in life and in work. In 2013, there were 100 billion app downloads. Finding and downloading apps is now the third most popular activity among mobile users, just behind viewing Facebook and YouTube.
In the workplace, mobile devices—and the apps that go with them—have transformed the way employees do their jobs. Smartphones, tablets, and apps are no longer an option but a necessity. From small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, workers need mobile devices and apps if they are to achieve the degree of flexibility and productivity required for their firms to compete. In fact, a lot of employees no longer wait for company-issued tools to do their jobs. They bring their own devices (BYOD) to work, along with third-party apps for play and work, downloaded from who knows where. In 2012, the number of apps on an average user’s device was 41.
But as vital and beloved as mobile devices are today (they are much more personal than traditional “personal” computers), workers tend to secure them far less adequately than their other important possessions. For instance, they lock their cars, so why not their phones? The 2013 Norton Report from Symantec found that while nearly half of all smartphone users care enough about their devices to sleep next to them, they don’t protect them. Forty-eight percent of smartphone and tablet users don’t take even basic precautions such as using a device password, much less installing security software to protect against malicious apps.
This lax attitude is not only a threat to your employees, it’s a threat to your enterprise. With so many organizations allowing—indeed encouraging— employees to use their own devices for work, those employee phones and tablets now commonly hold sensitive work-related data, and that data is dangerously exposed to malicious apps. Even for companies that are not adopting BYOD, protecting corporate data from malicious and risky apps is critical because it is exceedingly easy to co-mingle personal and work business on the same device.
That’s why it’s so important for organizations to secure their mobile data, regardless of who owns the device. But how do you do that? How do you protect proprietary information and prevent corporate data from leaking out via apps? How do you secure your corporate networks against apps that may reside on the mobile devices that regularly access those networks?
You can’t ban apps outright. Employees will use them anyway. And besides, they’re important tools that make your organization more efficient and successful. You must protect corporate assets while giving employees the freedom to work productively and use the apps they need.
Symantec can help. Our technology enables your enterprise to embrace apps and empower employees— safely and securely. With Symantec™ solutions, your IT team can be a productivity enhancer rather than an inhibitor, and you can go mobile with confidence.
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