Employees are increasingly risking the security of their companies’ systems by downloading insecure mobile applications to their corporate smartphones, IT experts have warned.
The use of “rogue” applications has become a top security concern for private sector employers, according to software security firm NGS Secure.
Paul Vlissidis, technical director at NGS Secure, said trends in the mobile application consumer market are negatively and directly impacting businesses because for most UK employees, “there is little or no differentiation between business and personal use”.
He added: “Most large companies have the security policies and software in place to protect mobile devices on a base level, but only now are they beginning to consider apps as vulnerable to cybercrime.”
In comparison with desktop software, mobile apps are highly insecure as a result of the speed at which they come to market, their life spans and rules surrounding publication, Vlissidis warned.
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“Businesses must ensure employees are aware of the risks of downloading applications to their work handsets, and that they trust the application they are running before submitting information or allowing applications access to files held on other areas of smartphones,” he said.
Experts have predicted that HR applications will soon be downloadable on mobile devices, creating more security challenges for employers.
