Mobile First, Security Second?

The security situation with regard to mobile technologies has become even more acute compared to the IDC study from 2015. The General Data Protection Regulation is also casting its shadow, with three quarters of the companies surveyed saying they are currently preparing for the new data protection requirements.

It will also be crucial to find more creative ways of raising user awareness. According to 52 percent of IT managers, users pose a greater threat than cyber criminals.

The fact that in one in two companies mobile apps are developed by employees in the departments themselves illustrates the tension between business enablement on the one hand and security on the other, in which IT decision-makers operate.

These are some of the highlights of the new IDC study "Mobile Security in Germany 2017". 65 percent of companies report experience with attacks on mobile devices, an increase of eight percentage points compared to 2015 - not including the number of undetected incidents.

More and more companies are realizing that the more intensively they use smartphones, tablets and the like for the business enablement of their employees, the more important it becomes to secure them.

From IDC's perspective, mobile security enforcement must become a central cornerstone of a digital organization's IT security architecture. Three quarters of all companies are already preparing for the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The GDPR may make future security breaches even more expensive for companies than before. After the transition period at the end of May 2018, data protection authorities can levy fines of up to 20 million euros or four percent of global sales.