Regional
Mobile messaging Company reputation and security risks rise as business mobile messaging usage increases
By Horden Wiltshire
20 | Australian Security Magazine
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hone hacking was once thought of as News of the World type media spying on the private calls of royals and celebrities. That’s rapidly changing because any phone user, right now, could be under the watchful eyes of forces far more malevolent than a gossip sheet. Consumer messaging phenomenon, WhatsApp disrupted the highly profitable SMS market and forever changed the power and potential of IP messaging. Consumers flocked to the service and businesses are jumping on the bandwagon to apply it commercially. Soon, business use of IP messaging will outstrip that of consumers. In the $50 billion world of enterprise messaging, businesses of all sizes use mobile to communicate with clients and customers. In addition to exposing personal data, those messages often contain sensitive information such as intellectual property, classified legal documents, medical reports, investment intelligence, and other financial information.
been hit with expensive breaches. US health insurer Anthem was targeted in late January where attackers tried to get private information about individuals on health plans – their names, addresses, birth dates and income data. Morgan Stanley also reported a major breach after an employee stole data from around 350,000 brokerage accounts and posted it for sale online. However attack patterns change quickly and criminals are turning to less protected ecosystems such as mobile devices. The most common exploit is malware contained within apps - often downloaded from third-party app stores or from unknown links. Those behind these hostile invasions want to exploit personal data, audio, and screenshots. It’s unthinkable to connect a PC or laptop to the internet without up-to-date virus protection, but workers do it every day with phones and tablets. And while companies spend considerable sums securing desktop systems, little thought is given to securing mobile information.
Criminals change their attack patterns quickly
Top management failing to see mobile risks
Attacks on traditional IT systems for such information are not new. This year Healthcare giants to financial stalwarts have
In fact management of many of our top companies either doesn’t seem to be aware of the mobile vulnerabilities, or don’t think it will happen to them.