Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
10th April 2024 Issue no. 700

Your industry news - first

We strongly recommend viewing Locks and Security News full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.

Mobile security costs UK SMEs over £66 billion per year

SolarWinds, a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, has announced the results of a survey* looking into the mobile security challenges faced by UK IT decision makers in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The results show that mobile security costs UK SMEs over £66 billion per year - an average of £13,823 per company. They reveal that SMEs dedicate, on average, six hours per week to managing and monitoring mobile devices - which equates to 17% of an IT manager's working hours.

Responding reactively to mobile security threats was found to cost SMEs more time and money than those that proactively mitigated thethreat; on average over £3,000 more per year, and two additional IT support working hours per week.

The study also highlighted that most companies (52%) claim that theircorporate network has already been compromised by an unsecurepersonal device with the leading cause of breaches attributed to phishing and malware infected sites (as reported by 71% ofrespondents).

Critically, they have little insight into what devices areconnecting to their network with 70% claiming they have an issueidentifying rogue devices. 

The majority of SMEs (52%) claim their corporate network has been compromised by an unsecure personal device. 69% agree that mobile devices pose the biggest risk to network security. The main perceived danger is compromised corporate information(85%) followed by decreased productivity (70%) and increasedmalware infections (67%).

The leading causes of mobile security breaches are phishing andmalware infected sites (71%), followed by the use of simplepasswords (70%), lost handsets (63%) and unsecure Wi-Finetworks (61%).

The key challenges associated with effectively managing and securingmobile devices were the inability to rapidly identify, quantify, andmitigate threats (76%), visibility of rogue devices in the network(70%), outdated/unpatched software (63%), and visibility ofcorporate devices in the network (57%).

"The fact that UK SMEs are spending £66billion on mobile security yet still have difficulty knowing what devices are accessing their network is aserious concern - especially as the number of mobile devices isincreasing exponentially. Failure to provide adequate security not onlyresults in loss of reputation and revenue through lost business, but alsohas growing legal ramifications," said Joel Dolisy, CTO and CIO,SolarWinds. "In our experience, SMEs tell us they're keen to proactively address growing mobile security threats but don't have the resources tof ully control network access. Put simply, they need a straightforward solution to regain control of their network."

SolarWinds Phone: +353-21-5002954
[email protected]

2nd October 2013