Blogs -How Mobile Devices and Cloud Computing Changed Security

How Mobile Devices and Cloud Computing Changed Security


June 12, 2018

author

Beth Kindig

Lead Tech Analyst

Prior to the advent of mobile computing, security was limited to corporate IT assets that were often physically secured in facilities owned and managed by the company. According to a recent SANS Institute study, organizations spend as much as 12 percent of their IT budget on security.

In a Ponemon Institute study, it was found that organizations have a 27.7 percent probability of having a material data breach in the next 24 months at an average cost of $3.62M.

Meanwhile, the world of computing has changed. Security is not just about physically secure data centers and corporate controlled computing assets. Instead, end users have gone mobile, connecting to cloud enabled services, often with their own personal devices. And with the rise of the Internet of Things, there will be billions of connected computing devices on the planet in the next several years.

The primary consequences of applications getting hacked include financial loss, destroyed brand reputation, exposure to liability, and regulatory risk. Over 7 billion identities have been stolen in data breaches over the last eight years equal to one data breach for every person on the planet. Meanwhile, mobile’s rapid expansion has introduced a complicated and potentially hostile environment that is difficult to manage and protect.

64 percent of security practitioners said they were very concerned about the use of insecure mobile applications in the workplace with an average of 472 mobile applications reported as actively used in organizations.

Prior to the advent of mobile computing, security was limited to corporate IT assets that were often physically secured in facilities owned and managed by the company, on a network behind a managed firewall, and possibly in a datacenter with multi-factor access, physical security, and armed guards. Because the company owned those assets, they were able to dictate what applications could run on those machines, and actively manage and monitor them, providing the latest patches, endpoint security, and other controls dictated by corporate IT. Assets located in such places were implicitly trusted.

Today, the situation has changed. Mobile devices dominate the market, often as the primary or only way users access the Internet and the many cloud services available. These devices also have very little, if any, physical security. It is a well-worn path hackers use to access such devices to reverse engineer or tamper with the applications running on them, often through rooting, jailbreaking or hoodwinking the user.

This shift has created all sorts of new business models to take advantage of the popularity of mobile devices.

 

These new business models come with new security problems:

  • New forms of payment using near field communications (NFC) on mobile devices are becoming popular in recent years. These applications require that credentials to authenticate users must be stored on the device. If those credentials are compromised, then a hacker can execute fraudulent transactions.
  • Mobile devices are being used in the automotive industry to enable remote parking from your smartphone. A compromise of the device could pose a serious safety risk.
  • In healthcare, patients are using mobile devices to manage sensitive information collected from various devices ranging from fitness monitors to blood glucose monitors to improve care and create data driven treatment options. A compromise of such a device can lead to a loss of privacy and sensitive information. Or even worse, if a device is hacked, it could potentially lead to life-threatening consequences for the patient.

 

Internet of Things

By 2025, the total global worth of IoT technology will reach USD 6.2 trillion with the most value coming from health care devices (USD 2.5 trillion) and manufacturing (USD 2.3 trillion). Meanwhile, we see a persistent lack of IoT security investment with 67 percent of medical device makers expecting an attack on their devices while only 17 percent taking measures to prevent an attack. These numbers are staggering when you consider U.S. hospitals have an average of 10 to 15 connected devices per bed with some hospitals registering 5,000 beds — totaling 50,000 connected devices per hospital.

Furthermore, traditional security solutions do not port well to the IoT world, due to differences in system architectures and resource constraints. Therefore, IoT security solutions have not evolved enough and are prone to numerous vulnerabilities.

head bg

Get a bonus for subscription!

Subscribe to our free weekly stock
analysis and receive the "AI Stock: 5
Things Nobody is Telling you" brochure
for free.

More To Explore

Newsletter

Bitcoin price chart signaling potential top despite favorable crypto news

Why Bitcoin’s Bull Run May Be Nearing a Top Despite Pro-Crypto Tailwinds

Since calling the Bitcoin bottom near $16,000 in late 2022, the I/O Fund has maintained a disciplined, contrarian approach — issuing 13 buy alerts before Bitcoin surged above $100,000. Now, signs sugg

May 09, 2025
S&P 500 hits key 2025 target as bond market and consumer trends signal rising volatility and shifting stock-bond correlation.

2025 Market Outlook: Why Stocks and Bonds Are Signaling More Volatility

As the S&P 500 reaches a key bounce target, troubling signs in bonds and consumer behavior suggest this market rally may be on thin ice. I/O Fund’s Knox Ridley explains why volatility may intensify an

May 02, 2025
Illustration of an investor holding an umbrella, shielding from stock market volatility.

The Impact of Tariffs on the Stock Market: Q1 Preview

Rising tariffs are injecting significant uncertainty into the stock market, triggering daily volatility and forcing analysts to revise earnings estimates. Our Q1 preview dives into the potential impac

April 25, 2025
Aerial view of Tesla's new Model Y Juniper parked in lines. Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

Tesla Stock Faces Recalibration of Growth Expectations

Tesla’s stock is now facing a recalibration of expectations after Q1’s delivery report missed by a wide margin. Q1’s analyst consensus has gone from $25.98B at the start of the year to $23.97B in earl

April 17, 2025
an illustration of a government building, constrained by heavy chains, with a volatile stock chart displayed above.

The Fed Can’t Save This One: Why Bonds May Break the Stock Market in 2025

In early 2025, as markets rallied to new highs, we warned that divergence across key sectors signaled a looming correction. Now, with all major indexes in a technical bear market and bond market dysfu

April 11, 2025
Silhouette illustration of Larry Ellison, Oracle's CTO and executive chairman.

Oracle Stock Outlook: Revenue Could Double by FY2029, yet Targets Seem Lofty

Late in 2024, Oracle outlined an ambitious plan to nearly double its revenue by fiscal 2029, hinging on long-term growth in enterprise AI and cloud spending. Oracle sets itself apart from its hypersca

April 04, 2025
Graphic showing I/O Fund's "210% Cumulative Returns" with financial charts and a world map in the background.

I/O Fund Reports 210% Cumulative Return -- Ranking Above Wall Street's Best

In 2024, I/O Fund posted a 35% return, significantly outperforming popular tech ETFs, which recorded an 8% return over the same period. On a cumulative basis, the results translate to a remarkable 219

March 31, 2025
Illustration of an investor burdened by the weight of market downturn

The Harsh Truth: Retail Investors Take the Brunt of Market Losses

Retail investors face significant disadvantages in the stock market, often underperforming institutional investors by a wide margin. Studies show that high-frequency trading firms dominate market acti

March 28, 2025
Illustration of a futuristic AI data center featuring NVIDIA’s GB200 Superchip

NVIDIA’s GB200s for up to 27 Trillion Parameter Models: Scaling Next-Gen AI Superclusters

Supercomputers and advanced AI data centers are driving the AI revolution, enabling breakthroughs in deep learning and large-scale model training. As AI workloads become increasingly complex, next-gen

March 21, 2025
illustration of NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra chip with a glowing AI brain above it.

NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra Fuels AI & HPC Innovation, Efficiency and Capability  

NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell Ultra GPU, unveiled at NVIDIA GTC 2025, is transforming AI acceleration and high-performance computing (HPC). Designed for the “Age of Reasoning,” these cutting-edge GPUs del

March 21, 2025
newsletter

Sign up for Analysis on
the Best Tech Stocks

https://bethtechnology.cdn.prismic.io/bethtechnology/e0a8f1ff-95b9-432c-a819-369b491ce051_Logo_Final_Transparent_IOFUND.svg
The I/O Fund specializes in tech growth stocks and offers in-depth research for Premium Members. Investors get access to a transparent portfolio, a forum, webinars, and real-time trade notifications. Sign up for Premium.

We are on social networks


Copyright © 2010 - 2025