We perform thousands of important tasks each month with our phones: confidential emails to bosses and business partners, text messages between co-workers, authorizing payments and money transfers for personal and work accounts, and more. It’s no wonder that so many black hat hackers are creating so much malware trying to tap into your device.
A three-year Symantec study published in 2015 found 13,783 malware variants attacking vulnerabilities in iOS and Android. That’s almost 14,000 viruses trying to break in and swipe important data and documents, like your company’s bank account information, employee social security numbers, unannounced product plans, etc.
That’s all according to a new report on mobile platforms used in business from leading industry analyst Jack Gold. Download the report here.
Unprotected Phones Can Be Entry Points for Hackers
Gold points out that today’s smartphones are “often full access points for corporate back-end systems … As a result, potentially massive data breaches are quite possible.”
And Android smartphones may be the riskiest. “Many have pointed to Android over the past few years as being a relatively insecure platform that could be dangerous for business users,” writes Gold. “Android has made great strides over the past few product generations, but it still has some challenges when used in an enterprise.”
This is where BlackBerry’s market-leading security components come in to harden Android’s security features.
For instance, many Android phone makers “take between 60-180 days” to release security patches after Google releases its security updates, writes Gold. Not BlackBerry, which has a record of being the quickest (along with Google) at delivering security updates.
BlackBerry also has a BlackBerry Security Incident Report Team (BBSIRT) and a Security Research Group. The former works on fixing vulnerabilities as soon as possible, while the latter does “ethical hacking” on our own products to discover potential flaws. We also provide hotfixes on-the-spot for critical vulnerabilities outside those maintenance windows, like our recent fixes for the Android Quadrooter vulnerabilities.
Even More Protection
“Rooting” means overriding your Android device’s native restrictions and security measures. Some users consciously do it to add features such as access to alternative app stores. Others have their phone rooted against their will by malware. Either way, rooting makes your Android phone highly vulnerable to spyware, hacking and other attacks. This is why we developed the BlackBerry Secure Bootloader.
Every time you boot up your phone, our software verifies that the next component in the boot process is unaltered before going forward. This keeps our DTEK50, DTEK60 and PRIV devices shielded from unwanted changes, which ensures that employees do not carry rooted devices that could possibly end up being used to infiltrate their company’s network.
Gold also states: “Full encryption together with an ability to distinguish personal data from work related data is a critical component of enterprise-class security.” BlackBerry secure Android devices deliver on both counts. Our Android devices also come complete with full-disk encryption, which is turned on automatically and cannot be disabled. The data on the device is automatically wiped after 10 incorrect password attempts and encryption keys are stored in BlackBerry’s Secure Compound, so if you lose or accidentally get your BlackBerry device stolen, your information will still be safe from breaches.
Does your son want to play Fruit Ninja on your PRIV while you prepare dinner? BlackBerry separates your phone’s memory into different user profiles (find out how here), as well as personal and work containers. So you never have to worry about a young loved one accidentally deleting your important documents, or hackers breaking into your work files.
We know security breaches are an omnipresent threat. Many smartphone makers claim strong security, but BlackBerry stands apart from the crowd. Our DTEK50, DTEK60 (left) and PRIV phones are your business’ only choice for market-leading mobile security. Pair them with our market-leading, cross-platform EMM software, and you’ve got unbeatable security for even the highest-security government agencies and regulated companies. Just ask Gartner.
“Rooting” means overriding your Android device’s native restrictions and security measures. Some users consciously do it to add features such as access to alternative app stores. Others have their phone rooted against their will by malware. Either way, rooting makes your Android phone highly vulnerable to spyware, hacking and other attacks. This is why we developed the BlackBerry Secure Bootloader.
Does your son want to play Fruit Ninja on your PRIV while you prepare dinner? BlackBerry separates your phone’s memory into different user profiles (find out how here), as well as personal and work containers. So you never have to worry about a young loved one accidentally deleting your important documents, or hackers breaking into your work files.