Smartphones & Security – IT challenges in 2022

Mobility & Mobile Devices – A cocktail of woe for the IT department.

The good old days seem to be long gone. The times where we had to go in to work every day, when our hours were 9 am until 6 pm every day, too. The times when staff had fixed desks with times just as rigid. These are all practically consigned to history.

Working today is hybrid and no longer bound to fixed times or places being far more synonymous with mobility. Employees work partly from the office and partly from home, outside of secure corporate networks, and logically, companies are more vulnerable to attacks, errors, data leaks, and completely new threats.

And there’s a new phenomenon—a growing number of corporate mobile end devices. Since 2019, smartphones and tablets have been enjoying exponentially increased use in companies. The professional world is undergoing a shift—away from mobile use in private and towards use in work. Today, some 70% of employees use their work phone for private use, too. And in turn, the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend is accelerating this new dynamic.

What threats does this all pose for mobile end devices?

According to Dimitri Klein, Security Consultant at Bechtle France, there are two main types of computer attacks that target mobile devices and mobile employees.

“There are attacks on the network and direct attacks on the hardware. The network attacks are generally “man-in-the-middle” attacks that redirect traffic. And when it comes to hardware, operating system or reproducer vulnerabilities are targeted. ”

The biggest threat remains, however, traditional yet effective phishing. There has been a rise of more than 37% in mobile phishing attacks in companies related to remote working and BYOD (according to the Mobile Phishing Spotlight Report published by Lookout in 2020.

“With mobile devices, the risk of e-mail phishing rises, but also SMS, messaging apps and social media platform phishing,” Dimitri Klein explains.

Knox Suite – The best solution on the market

In an effort to counteract this new dynamic, Samsung currently offers Knox Suite. Samsung’s platform is built on the three main pillars of the enterprise mobility strategy—security, deployment, and management.

“Samsung has set its focus on this very specific area of mobile device security, but especially native security,i.e. that which is integrated into the devices and software. It’s a safe inside another safe. This enables companies to have high-level security on all levels, right from production and procurement. ”

In a nutshell, Knox Suite ensures end-to-end device security from chip to user interface with software that’s being constantly updated. These updates are rolled out for the entire fleet thanks to a unique dashboard integrated into the Samsung Galaxy Enterprise edition. It includes five years of security updates*, two years of market availability**, and the all-in-one Knox Suite solution***.