Laptops are being deployed within enterprises at an increasing rate, mostly because of the flexibility and convenience they provide employees, and in turn, the productivity gains they provide for the companies.
It's impossible to go anywhere today without seeing people working outside the traditional office setting on their laptops - at the local coffee shop, while lounging in the park, standing at their kitchen counters, waiting at airport gates, and working in their hotel rooms. Gone are the days when people worked from 9:5 at the office. As John Girard stated in a report on Managing the Mobile & Remote Wireless Workforce1, "during recent years, the volume of people working outside the settings of central offices has risen steadily. No matter where people are physically located, they are usually involved in remote work. Their outputs, collaborations, meetings and styles are characterized by interactions that are electronic, not face-to-face."
Some interesting market trends also support this same point:
- By 2008, 75% of the sales and services workforce worldwide will be mobile. (Gartner)
- In May 2005, notebook sales accounted for 53% of the total U.S. PC market, outpacing desktop sales for the first time. (Current Analysis, July 2005)
This shift in employee mobility has created a need to redefine the mobile worker. No longer can a mobile worker be defined solely as a "road warrior," the traveling salesperson who spends upwards of 80% of their time on the road going from airport, to hotel, to customer site, etc. It may also be a teleworker - someone who works mainly from their home office and uses either a laptop or sometimes even a personal PC. In today's business environment, a mobile worker can be defined simply as any user that has been issued a mobile computing device, such as a laptop.
With the growth in mobile laptop usage comes a new set of complexities for enterprises trying to make it simple and seamless for their end-users to connect, while at the same time, protecting their network, their assets and the reputation of their business.
THE CHANGING THREAT LANDSCAPE
When it comes to protecting data and devices, many IT professionals say that it has become too difficult to keep up. In other words, staying ahead of the security curve is overwhelming, and many feel like they are not leading, but rather responding or reacting. Conversely, there are others that feel like they have it all covered. Their endusers aren't complaining, their executives are happy, they haven't experienced any security breaches, and costs are under control. In our first video analysis, "Real World Security Threats: The Anatomy of a Hack" (12/2005), Dan Hoffman (Systems Engineer) walked through three primary network-based threats:
1. Credentials and data sniffing
2. Malware including viruses, worms, trojans, spyware and adware
3. Direct attacks to computer system or network as a result of deliberate action
The guide provided a thorough description of each type of threat, and best practices for how to protect your enterprise against that specific form of attack.
Gone are the days of random experimentation and information vandalism for the pure enjoyment of publicity and notoriety. Today's hackers are more motivated by quick financial gain - targeting specific industries or companies and going after their valued data and information. They are executing more cleverly than ever before to avoid detection. Therefore, enterprises need more sophisticated security processes, architectures and strategies to deal with these attacks today, and in the future.
A recent Gartner study shows that viruses and worms still top the list of threats that keep IT organizations up at night - with spyware and phishing in a close tie for second. Although most enterprises are aware of these sophisticated Web-based attacks, the threat is as daunting as ever.
The Disconnected Threat
n a 2005 FBI Computer Crime Survey, US companies alone lost an estimated $67 billion due to computer crimes (e.g., viruses, spyware, PC theft and other computer crimes). This is despite the fact that virtually all of the organizations surveyed used anti-virus software (98.2%) and personal firewalls (90.7%). These losses are due to the fact that traditional Internet security solutions are not enough to handle sophisticated web-based threats.
