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(PRIORITIES2008) mobile security
Moving Pieces
Companies will spend more time than ever securing mobile devices.
Even though its workforce is just beginning to hit the road, Citizens Bank of Mount Vernon, Ky., is already busy locking down laptops and planning how to secure other mobile devices.
With 50 employees and four branches, the bank is still a traditional brick-and-mortar business, says Dennis Weiskircher Jr., IT manager and security officer. "But we have started to get people to meet with customers in their area, so we implemented PGP full-disk encryption for all our laptops," he says.
And even though smart phones and BlackBerries are few and far between at the bank, the company is evaluating how it will control those portable devices so employees can use them without putting business data at risk.
"That's always the delicate balance," Weiskircher says. "They need these tools to work, but we also need them to work securely. ...We're trying to be proactive about this."
With the disappearing network perimeter an ongoing issue in the enterprise, it's no surprise that readers rated mobile security as a top concern for 2008. As employees increasingly work outside the office with laptops, PDAs and smart phones, nearly half of the security professionals surveyed say they plan to spend more time on mobile device security.
Time and again, there is news of a stolen or missing laptop containing confidential corporate data, and more organizations are determined to thwart the problem. Of the survey respondents, 27.3 percent say they will evaluate laptop encryption this year, and 16.4 percent will implement it. "Everybody needs to do that," says Leo Dittemore, director of IS security administration at HealthCare Partners in Los Angeles County.
An analysis of 2006 breaches by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse showed that laptop theft made up 40 percent of security incidents in the private sector.
The organization's chronology of 2007 breaches includes many involving stolen laptops, including one containing 268,000 records of donors to Memorial Blood Centers in Duluth, Minnesota. Another stolen laptop contained personal information on an unknown number of Deloitte & Touche employees.
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