To reduce the risk posed by lost and stolen mobile devices, organisations must implement a mobile-centric zero trust approach

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–MobileIron (NASDAQ:MOBL), the company that introduced the industry’s first mobile-centric, zero trust platform for the enterprise, today announced the results of a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, which found that government staff in the UK lost 508 mobile and laptop devices between January and April 2018. The findings serve to highlight the fact that mobile device security remains as important as ever for public sector organisations in the UK.

The FoI request also found that only 10% of devices lost by public sector employees are ever recovered. With the average enterprise using up to almost 1,000 cloud-based applications, the security risks presented by the volume of data that might be exposed when a device is lost or stolen becomes clear. In fact, a recent Bitglass breach report found that lost and stolen devices account for one in four breaches in the financial services sector. To reduce the risk of being breached, companies need to implement an always verify, never trust approach that establishes complete control over their business data, wherever it lives.

David Critchley, MobileIron’s Regional Director, UK&I said: “As the amount of business data that flows across devices, apps, networks, and cloud services continues to increase, it is essential that organisations have the right security protocols in place to minimise risk and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data if a device is lost or stolen. Even one lost or stolen device provides a goldmine of readily accessible and highly critical data to potential fraudsters and hackers.”

Critchley continued: “All organisations should move beyond standard password-based security protocols and implement a mobile-centric zero trust model. This approach validates the device, establishes user context, checks app authorization, verifies the network, and detects and remediates threats before granting secure access to a device or user. The zero trust model allows organisations, including government departments, to significantly reduce risk by giving them complete control over their business data – even on lost or stolen devices.”

About the Freedom of Information Request:

MobileIron contacted nine ministerial departments from within the UK Government. All nine of the departments contacted responded with the relevant data.

About MobileIron

MobileIron is redefining enterprise security with the industry’s first mobile-centric, zero trust platform built on the foundation of unified endpoint management (UEM) to secure access and protect data across the perimeter-less enterprise. Over 17,000 customers, including the world’s largest financial institutions, intelligence agencies, and other highly regulated companies rely on MobileIron to enable a seamless and secure user experience by ensuring only authorized users, devices, apps, and services can access business resources. For more information, visit www.mobileiron.com.

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