It’s Been a Pfreakout Year for Mobile Security, So Our 2021 Prediction is SECURITY, SECURITY and MORE MOBILE SECURITY

 In Blogs & Bloggers

By Colleen LeCount, Mobolize | CRO

We’ve said it before – mobile security is more important now than ever. And we’ll probably say it again and again.

We’ve all seen or experienced the growth of Work/Learn from Home, and that has increased the use of mobile devices in business and education. With the workforce connecting from virtually anywhere and on multiple devices the traditional network security trust model is broken. The ‘network’ is the internet, the majority of mobile devices are not managed which creates a real challenge for secure access and data protection.

Early in 2020 when the world was predominately under stay-at-home requirements, Akamai reported a 40% increase in internet services use over enterprise-connected devices. They also found a 400% increase in traffic to malware websites.

Much of the malware (nearly two-thirds) was delivered via the cloud including business applications such as Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint and Google Drive, according to Netscope Security Cloud. Plus, there was a three-fold increase in phishing attacks that can compromise passwords to both enterprise and personal accounts, according to Code42.

Those are astonishing stats, and mobile security landscape for enterprises has changed rapidly. Enterprises were already moving toward including mobile with the growth of cloud systems and apps, increased mobility of the workforce and added diversity of devices being used to access. The Work from Home requirement sped up the need to enable security where the workforce is located and on the devices they are using, including smartphones, tablets and Chromebooks.

Our prediction: 2021 will be the breakout year for Zero Trust, and mobile is key to this strategy.

Business today requires that systems, services, data and processes be accessible to employees, partners and customers through multiple access points anywhere, anytime and through any device over the internet. This of course expands the entry points for attackers, making Zero Trust key to enterprise security.

In fact, Gartner Research predicts that by 2022, 80% of new digital business applications that provide the required employee/partner/customer entry points will be accessed through Zero Trust network access. By 2023, 60% of enterprises will phase out most of their remote access virtual private networks (VPNs) in favor of Zero Trust.

Zero Trust has been around for more than a decade but has been focused on the traditional enterprise network. Its architecture is designed to eliminate the uncertainty in enforcing accurate access decisions in information systems and services. That means securely controlling all access requests and continually monitoring for threats from all users, data flows and devices.

Zero Trust must expand to include mobile devices, and the only way to have that level of security means it must be resident on the mobile device itself. The requirement for Zero Trust mobile technology is the ability to block data on the mobile device no matter the mobile operating system, which have unique rules. It must manage, protect, route and secure mobile data and DNS traffic, including different cloud security solutions, and be compatible with all apps and browsers including video services and LAN access. Importantly, it must be easily deployed and centrally managed for both enterprise-owned devices and user-owned, such as with the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy.

That’s not easy and the traditional VPN does not meet the demands. Our patented SmartVPN® technology enables Zero Trust features for the challenging mobile device environment for our partners. The Mobolize SmartVPN® advantage sits inside our Data Management Engine which contains a powerful software stack enabling fine grain controls over data and DNS traffic. This enables selective MiTM for threat prevention, targeted DNS traffic protection including dual-mode with local DNS, privacy through encryption and DOT/DOH and support for proprietary authentication, and SSO with or without device MDM rights.

It’s smart Zero Trust on the mobile device. It’s the solution for mobile Zero Trust that will define enterprise security in 2021.

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