Mobile Security Predicted to be Fastest Growing Security Segment in 2021

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Mobile Security Predicted to be Fasted Growing Security Segment in 2021

According to Analysys Mason’s predictions for business connectivity, communications, IoT and security in 2021, mobile device security will be the fastest growing cyber-security category. 

In its predictions, Analysys Mason – a global consulting and research firm specializing in telecom, media and technology – said, “COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of mobile security. Enterprises have been slow to secure mobile devices, but will pay more attention to this because they have had to rely on mobile devices during lockdown and new security threats are emerging. 

“We forecast that spend on mobile security will grow at 17% CAGR between 2019 and 2025 to reach almost USD13 billion.”

From what we are seeing, we believe this prediction to be true. We are standing at the precipice – – the threats are real and both the private and public sectors are beginning to see it.  

As a matter of fact, The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), through its Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), selected Zimperium to deliver comprehensive Mobile Endpoint Protection (MEP) to service members around the world. Our mobile threat defense (MTD) solutions will protect DoD mobile endpoints against phishing, malicious/risky apps, OS exploits and network attacks. And, in the wake of the SolarWinds hack, CISOs and CIOs are scrambling (at least they should be) to address mobile security concerns. 

The reality is hackers are getting more creative and bolder in their efforts. Scammers – masquerading as more than 25 different companies, brands and government agencies – used 265 Google Forms to steal user passwords and credentials. While all of the Google Forms were removed by Google after we reported it, the links were active for several months after being added to public phishing databases.

We saw a 6x increase in the amount of phishing attacks – many of which tied to the pandemic – from Q2 2020 over Q1 and, as of September, 2020 recorded more mobile app breaches, failures, and data leaks than all of 2019.

And we could go on. Our researchers uncovered a new variant of the money-siphoning MobOk malware. The samples found evaded detection by AV vendors for months. We also detected 64 variants of “Joker” trojans unreported by the anti-malware industry. 

Again, precipice.

CISOs and CIOs are taking note. During one of customer advisories, one security leader stated flatly that “mobile devices are no longer the forgotten endpoint.” As another customer noted, the overnight shift to remote working for most employees has forced organizations to acknowledge the proverbial “elephant in the living room:” mobile devices are accessing/containing corporate data and are the keys to Zero Trust/two-factor authentication. Unfortunately, most organizations have left these devices completely unprotected.  

The Zimperium way 

Zimperium, the global leader in mobile device and app security, offers real-time, on-device protection against Android, iOS and Chromebooks threats. The Zimperium platform leverages our award-winning machine learning-based engine – z9 – to protect mobile data, apps and sessions against device compromises, network attacks, phishing attempts and malicious apps. 

Our solutions include zIPS which runs locally on any mobile device and detects cyberattacks without a connection to the cloud and our first-of-its-kind Mobile Application Protection Suite (MAPS), a comprehensive solution that helps organizations protect their mobile apps throughout their entire life cycle. 

MAPS is comprised of three solutions: zScan, which helps organizations discover and fix compliance, privacy, and security issues; zShield, which hardens the app through obfuscation and anti-tampering; and zDefend (formerly zIAP), an SDK embedded in apps to help detect and defend against device, network, phishing and malicious app attacks while the app is in use.

To learn more on how we can help, please contact us.

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Author: JT Keating
Strategic Initiatives. View the author's experience and accomplishments on LinkedIn.

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