From payment processing and barcode scanning, to emails and customer service, mobile devices are increasingly important in enterprises. They are crucial to the growth of many organizations, offering efficiency, productivity, ease, and speed. However, their ubiquitous use increases security risks, leaving enterprises vulnerable to several mobile security threats.
Table of contents:
- The rise of mobile security threats
- The top 5 mobile security threats enterprises will face this year
- How to safeguard enterprise devices
The rise of mobile security threats
As digital transformation advances, so does the sophistication of cyber attacks. As enterprises move to the cloud, attackers have improved their capabilities to exploit mobile device vulnerabilities. The value of cloud-stored data has increased, and with it, its risk of being targeted by cyber attacks or inside threats.
Over the past year, a 75% in cloud environment intrusions solidifies that hackers are finding new ways to gain access, steal information, and manipulate employees into giving out sensitive information.
Furthermore, with the rise of generative AI models, attacks are becoming highly evolved. Hackers can now use AI to improve common social engineering scams, making them appear more legitimate through fewer grammatical and spelling errors.
Mobility comes with high stakes, and organizations can’t afford to fall behind. In addition to data regulations and compliance, proper data security is paramount to avoid financial, legal, and reputational damage from the increasing threats to enterprise devices, as well as loss of productivity.
The top 5 mobile security threats enterprises will face this year
1. Social engineering
According to Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, the human aspect is the most common threat denominator, with 68% of breaches involving a non-malicious human element. People are tricked by social engineering attacks, for example, clicking a link or providing information that can lead to exploitation. Cybercriminals use manipulation to exploit human error, bypassing firewalls, antivirus software, and other cybersecurity controls.
Social engineering tactics are commonly used to obtain personal information, but enterprises are increasingly at risk. These attacks also serve as the first stage in an enterprise attack, tricking an employee into revealing their username and password, and then using the login information to deploy ransomware on the organization's network.
Spear phishing or whaling attacks are common types of social engineering attacks in which hackers specifically target a high-profile individual within an organization to get access to confidential data and sensitive information.
2. Insider threats
Insider threats, whether intentional or not can compromise security. Insiders, most often employees, have sensitive information, and access to internal systems, making them dangerous and more difficult to detect. There are two types of insider threats:
Intentional: Intentional threats occur when an employee exploits their access to data and internal programs to inflict damage or steal sensitive information.
Non-intentional: These types of threats are often a result of an employee improperly handling sensitive data, falling for a phishing scam, losing their device, or using weak passwords.
3. Unsecured Public Wi-Fi
Public Wi-Fi, or third-party networks are often less protected leaving users vulnerable to attack. Most common are man-in-the-middle attacks in which the hacker positions themselves between an employee and the server they’re accessing through unsecured public Wi-Fi.
While playing man-in-the-middle, the hacker can capture a user’s traffic, which they can use to steal sensitive company information like secured data, credit card numbers, or login information. They can also exploit unsecured connections to install malware onto the device.
4. Outdated software
Outdated software no longer receives security updates, increasing the risk of exploitable vulnerabilities becoming known to attackers. Hackers target vulnerabilities in outdated mobile operating systems and applications by writing code to exploit them and inject malware onto devices. These mobile device vulnerabilities make enterprise devices easy targets for hackers.
As a result, enterprise mobile devices become prime targets, exposing sensitive company data and compromising security.
5. Cloud Misconfigurations
As enterprises move company data to the cloud and employees interact with cloud hosted services daily, attacks on the cloud increase.
The majority of these breaches result from cloud misconfigurations, which happen when developers implement infrastructure changes without correctly applying security settings. Common misconfigurations include identity and access management (IAM), disabled logging, open storage buckets, and unsecured APIs which lead to data breaches.
How to safeguard enterprise devices
With these looming threats to enterprise mobility, protection against the big five is crucial. Security solutions, such as Samsung Knox Suite, are introducing robust services to safeguard work devices and data.
Compatible with Samsung Galaxy devices, Samsung Knox Suite plans provide organizations with:
- Government-grade security compliance.*
- Routine software and application updates preventing vulnerabilities in outdated software.
- Multi-layered data encryption, security on public Wi-Fi, and remote lock for lost devices.
- Routine, remote health checks.
- Threat management solutions like message guards, app security, and real-time kernel protection.
- Advanced VPN settings.
- Mobile enrollment that supports enrolling locally-hosted EMM agents, so security and performance are tightly kept on each device.
Keep your enterprise safe with Samsung Knox
As enterprise mobility continues to grow, so do mobile device vulnerabilities and security threats. Enterprises must stay vigilant against evolving threats by implementing robust security solutions. Knox Platform for Enterprise can help safeguard devices and data, ensuring compliance and protection against the increasing complexity of cyberattacks in 2025.
Try Knox Suite free for 90 days.**
*Samsung Knox has successfully met the rigorous security requirements set by Governments and major enterprises around the world, providing business users with a robust mobile security solution. https://www.samsungknox.com/en/knox-platform/knox-certifications.
**After the 90-day free trial period, Knox suite license must be purchased for use. Available services, functions and features on Knox Suite may vary by device model, country or region. Up to 7 years, monthly update for 4 years and quarterly for 3 years. Applicable for Galaxy S24 and select later models, starting from the year of respective device models release. Specific details may vary by region and model. For more information, visit www.samsungknox.com.
