The explosive proliferation of personal smartphones and tablets in the workplace exposes your company to increased risks. While a breach of personally identifiable information or payment card data is certainly a top concern for many businesses, there are other risks that any organization needs to consider. Chief among these are the cost of breaches and responding to incidents, the potential damage to brand reputation, and a loss of competitive advantage if valuable trade secrets or intellectual property become public knowledge.

Mobile systems, the networks they connect to, and the apps they run can all be exploited to steal sensitive information such as documents, calendar appointments, email messages, texts, and attachments. Cyber criminals can use a device’s microphone and camera to spy on closed-door meetings, and then send recordings to a secret remote server. They can even capture user names and passwords as users log in to corporate systems containing sensitive data. Unsecured networks, or networks using faulty or old security measures, make it possible for criminals to snoop, steal, or even change data sent to and from devices. Malicious apps can give attackers virtually unrestricted access to a device, its data, and your network.

Accurate threat detection and efficient response are critical components of preventing advanced attacks on smartphones and tablets. Traditional anti-virus and app reputation solutions can identify known threats, but they can’t detect newly created malware or the vulnerabilities in networks, operating systems, and apps.