RSA conference looks at online vulnerability

Mobile devices, social networking and cloud computing are opening up new avenues for both cyber criminals and competitors to access critical business information, according to speakers at this week's RSA Conference 2011 at San Francisco's Moscone Center and a survey set for release this morning.

The poll of 10,000 security professionals

The poll of 10,000 security professionals, by Mountain View market innovation firm Frost & Sullivan, as well concluded that corporate research staffs are frequently ill prepared to deal with many of the new threats presented by these emerging technologies.

Mobile: Mobile devices ranked nearly the top of their security concerns, coming in second behind applications, just as internally developed software and Internet browsers.

Businesses face a number of threats from the increasingly common use of smart phones and tablets by their workers, including malicious software that attacks the operating systems, or the simple loss or theft of devices often laden with corporate information.

Juniper Networks, a sponsor of the RSA conference, presented some eye-catching - if as well self-serving - statistics while a session titled "Defend Your Mobile Life."

Mark Bauhaus, an executive vice president at Juniper, said that 98 percent of mobile devices like smart phones and tablets aren't protected with any security software, and that few users set up a password. That's troublesome, he said, given that:

The need to adopt mobile applications

Bauhaus stressed the need to adopt mobile applications and online services - which Juniper not coincidentally provides - that remotely turn off and wipe gadgets, blacklist spammers, detect and remove viruses, and ensure that devices are safe earlier connecting to corporate networks.

Since late December, two Trojans have been identified on Android phones that represented significant leaps in technological sophistication, said Kevin Mahaffey, chief research officer of Lookout, which as well develops mobile security services.

Cloud: A Wednesday morning session titled "Cloud Computing: A Brave New World for Security and Privacy," highlighted the considerations that businesses should bear in mind previously using such a system, in which data are stored on remote server farms to put it more exactly than ensconced behind a company's own walls.

Related Topics: LinkedIn, Hewlett-Packard, Mark Bauhaus, Cloud computing, Juniper Networks, San Francisco, Cyberoam, Moscone Center