Cloud, Smartphones Complicate Enterprise Security
January 18, 2011 No CommentsCompanies have been quick to embrace mobile devices and cloud computing environments, but they’re still too reliant on dated security methods.
Most enterprises are unnecessarily leaving their data and networks open to attack from hackers, primarily because most have failed to embrace advanced security applications and policies needed to safeguard the cloud computing and mobile networks they’ve invested so heavily in the past few years.
That’s the overarching conclusion of a new (PDF format) study released this week by Forrester Consulting and security software vendor Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC).
Fifty-four percent of the 306 companies with 1,000 to 20,000-plus employees surveyed reported a significant data breach last year. And as companies of all sizes increase their reliance on the cloud and a small army of smartphones and tablet PCs, that figures will almost surely rise unless IT managers start making the expensive and time-consuming commitment to advanced authentication security applications.