The Looming Smartphone Security Crisis

Chances are good that many users accessing corporate applications with their smartphones will be replacing those devices over the next 12 months because of mounting security concerns.

Thus far, smartphone security has pretty much been an afterthought. But as these devices proliferate, IT organizations are realizing how much sensitive data is being accessed on these devices.

With 300 million smartphones in use today, it's staggering to think about the number without any real security.

Unfortunately, processors on the first couple of generations of smartphones were incapable of running robust security software, and most end users were blissfully unaware that it existed. But Jacob Greenblatt, director of corporate strategy for Discretix, a provider of security subsystems such as CryptoCell and other related security tools used in embedded processors, says advances in smartphone processors mean next-generation smartphones will feature more built-in security capabilities.

As mobile security evolves, said Greenblatt, many of the same digital-rights-management tools used by providers of mobile application software will become more widely adopted by IT organizations building custom mobile applications. As those capabilities evolve, companies will become much more aware of the big hole that existing smartphones make in their data security strategies.

That, in turn says Greenblatt, is likely to create new minimum security requirements for corporate smartphones that most devices in use cannot meet.