Snap to It: Mobile Secure Gateway Is In Your Future

The enterprise world is changing. In the past, enterprises built their IT infrastructure as isolated data fortresses and did everything they could to prevent outsiders from accessing their core systems and data.

Today we're playing a different game, fuelled by an unprecedented usage of mobile devices and the staggering growth of mobile technologies. Enterprises recognize the importance of mobile devices and mobile apps for business, social, and personal uses. They understand that to stay competitive and relevant, they have to be open to the ideas of going mobile and riding this mobility wave.

As consumers and employees use mobile devices more and more, enterprises start introducing mobile applications into their business processes to respond quickly to customer demands and increase employee productivity. They also develop custom-built apps to explore new business opportunities and extend their market reach. But this means they have to unlock their IT fortress to communicate with the outside world, potentially allowing access to corporate resources through mobile applications.

And what?

Unfortunately existing mobile technologies are not well-secured to thwart cybercriminals from breaking in, disrupting business services, tampering with sensitive information, or stealing valuable data. Moreover, with today's approach to mobile app design and development, security has taken a back seat to app functionality; sometimes it is treated almost as an afterthought. To meet the increased demand and the swift pace of technological change, organizations are looking for solutions that accelerate the "speed to market" for new apps, while lowering the overall costs of development, maintenance, and the total cost of ownership.

Organizations and app development companies focus effort on the front-end development strategy by making the app look "pretty" with fancy icons and images to entice the customer to use it. They don't spend enough time on the security of the app, particularly the back-end system, where the important customer and business data can be accessed, and where most security attacks occur.

In less than six weeks, it is possible to deliver a mobile app, but it may not have the security needed to protect either enterprise or customer data.

Unfortunately, many developers don't think about covering the security of mobile apps until there is a breach. Or they assume that it is “as secure as our customers' infrastructure.” However, since the enterprise is opening a hole at their infrastructure for the first time to allow communication between the app and their internal servers, they have not needed to address this particular security issue; they rely on the app developer to anticipate and respond to these threats.

Organizations and developers remain quietly ignorant of the threat until a breach occurs. Suddenly they find themselves managing damage control and releasing patches to stop the leak. In the case of zero-day (zero-hour) vulnerabilitity, there is no time to fix it because the hackers have long-since penetrated the system; they accomplished their insidious task and did their damage internally, months before they were discovered.

According to Forbes and Gartner, 84% of all cyber-attacks are happening within the application layer, and through 2015, 75% of mobile apps will fail basic security tests.

It's not enough, however, to merely address security issues. The purpose of an effective mobile security solution is not to bring additional hurdles and disrupt the current work process. It should enable enterprises to ride the mobility wave more safely and quicker. Thus, a robust mobile security solution needs to blend seamlessly into the IT infrastructure without interrupting the existing workflow, without sacrificing existing investment, and ensuring pleasant mobile experiences to the end-users.

SeaCat provides business with a simple yet effective way to embed security into the mobile application, adding a necessary layer of protection for corporate data and the core IT systems.

Using a defensive armor like Mobile Secure Gateway is one way to protect your business and your customer data from attacks like Man-in-the-Middle or Denial-of-Service (DDoS/DoS), as happened to Sony's website. It helps secure communication between mobile applications, and respective backend resources, within a corporate network.

SeaCat secures mobile applications for Financial Services, Insurance, Field Engineering, Utilities, Logistics, Automotive, and Telecommunications.

Drop us a message at info@teskalabs.com and learn how you can easily snap SeaCat Mobile Secure Gateway into your IT infrastructure and make security an integral part of your mobile strategy.

Photo credit: Flickr, Pixabay

About the Author

Cindy Dam

TeskaLabs’ Marketing & Community Manager, Cindy Dam, has a penchant for hacking and storytelling. When she's not reading and writing about cyber hacking, she reads, writes, and comes up with mind and travel hacks.