Will 2014 be the Year of Mobile Device Security?

What kind of security prevails in your mobile? You have facilities to unlock your screen using a password, a PIN, a pattern. Some mobile devices have gone ahead to rely on the front camera’s resolution to enable user photo authentication. (Although this feature is not as secure as the other three mentioned above). Other security methods are the destruction of complete phone and its data when phone is lost. Yet another innovation is locking the SD card whenever the phone sleeps. Thereby the SD card can be considered useless once the phone is lost and there’s nothing to worry.

I’d like to tell you that 2014 is going to be the year for a steep rise in mobile security. Why? Because the onus for security is going to shift from user and business to the manufacturer. The all new device-level security straight from the factory is this year’s big thing.

When users were asked to use passwords, VPN connections, update system software and applications regularly, and encrypt their devices, it’s very clear that not all users are keen on manually doing all this. According to users, security is inconvenient and unnecessary, sometimes it becomes annoying as well. This is where the focus shifted to businesses.

Businesses have spent a tremendous amount of cash on new software, training, and new security measures. However, these strategies failed in the sense that they discovered that most of the time and for most of the operations the OS fails to assure security. No matter what you do from the outside; it isn’t going to fix the problem.

This is where the mobile device manufacturers some into 2014’s picture. They have decided to place security where it should have been in the first place- on the device itself. This kind of security is a multi-layered approach, which means that it doesn’t rely on just one or two parties. The user, the business and the manufacturer have their own roles in the various layers. Each entity in the security path has a responsibility to ensure that everything possible is done to prevent malware, viruses, breaches, privacy leaks, and stolen information.

Making a head-start, Samsung has made the greatest effort among the manufacturers with its KNOX security suite. KNOX provides a comprehensive and secure solution in the way that it consists of several distinct technologies that protect user data, business data, communications, data at rest on the device, and the device itself.

Now that the manufacturers take care of the security, does it mean that businesses are off the hook for mobile security? Certainly not. Businesses still have their responsibility to ensure that personal devices aren’t jail broken or compromised in other ways.

In 2014, it’s not going to be an option any more for manufacturers to not provide device level security. Fingers crossed!