Mobile security is a question of understanding

Without question it's extremely handy to be able to use mobile devices in both home and business lives, but are you aware of the risks involved?

Many firms are encouraging staff to work from remote locations these days and this brings immense benefits as it allows employees more flexibility while at the same time helps to save the business money.

This may be using cloud-based systems from a laptop, or sending data and emails from a smartphone.

However, according to one technology expert, too many people fail to grasp the potential for data leaks to hackers.
Martyn Ruks, technical director at MWR InfoSecurity, said that mobile devices can be tapped into if the correct security measures are not in place and this can lead to valuable information being taken, such has internet banking details or personal data from social networks.

"There are people who are interested in gaining access to those," he said. "The first step is the user understanding that there is something that needs protecting. The next step is really acting with common sense.

"That means understanding that adding additional software to that phone may expose you to risk.

"Mobile phones in general do have slightly more protection than normal PCs in so far as a lot of the software is distributed through a single source, whether that is the Apple’sApps Store or Android Marketplace.

"There is a safety in numbers there in that if users have downloaded applications hundreds of times and given it good ratings then there is a certain amount of trust in that application."

He added that users can help to protect themselves by behaving like digital sheep and following the crowd when it comes to downloadable applications. However, this does not mean that the date is necessarily protected, it just gives an indication as which software may be trustworthy and which may not.

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