Mobile security awareness and solution investments are rising.
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- 2024
- Introduction
- Modern work, enabled by mobile
- IoT—everything, everywhere, all at once
- IoT use is especially high in critical infrastructure sectors
- IoT security risks: Amplified in critical infrastructure sectors
- All sectors perceive increased mobile and IoT risk
- Breach risks and impacts are high, especially in critical infrastructure
- Shadow IT: A looming security challenge
- Emerging AI cyberthreats meet new AI defenses
- The disconnect between perceived and actual mobile security
- Critical infrastructure sectors have specific considerations
- Mobile security awareness and solution investments are rising
- IoT security is also making strides
- But IoT security gaps remain
- More to do. More that can be done.
- The call to arms: Move faster
- Appendices
- Contributors
- Download the full report
While the survey illuminates some worrisome trends, there’s also good news to share.
As large-scale ransomware attacks and data breaches now regularly make headlines, stakeholders have taken notice. Mobile security spending has been on the rise for years and the pace is likely to increase as greater awareness of the risks and costs of breaches drives organizations to centralize controls, standardize security policies and deploy effective solutions.
Security spending is up.
Investments in securing mobile and IoT devices are rising. In fact, more than four in five organizations (84%) increased mobile device security spending over the past year. The increases were driven by a rising volume and greater awareness of threats, along with increased remote work. And spending is likely to increase in next year’s budget too, which is an encouraging sign that more organizations are taking a harder look at mobile security.
84%
of respondents increased or significantly increased mobile security spending in the past year.
86%
anticipate further increasing mobile security spending next year.
Critical infrastructure steps up.
Also good news: Critical infrastructure organizations are increasing their spending to match or exceed other sectors. 84% of those surveyed said mobile security spending has grown in the past year. And they’re even more likely to be planning to invest more in the year ahead. Because the growing importance of AI to cyber defense is widely recognized, a number of these investments will likely be in AI-powered solutions.
Covering the bases
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) originally covered five key functions of a healthy cybersecurity program: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover. In February 2024, NIST added an additional function, Govern. Together, these categories provide recommended steps and best practices across the cybersecurity function.
The Govern function covers risk management strategy, expectations and policy. It designates roles and responsibilities to foster stakeholder accountability. It also addresses cybersecurity supply chain risk management.
Perhaps because this function was so recently introduced, it’s seeing a slightly lower level of investment. Otherwise, spending is expanding across all functions, with investments balanced across each area of protection.
89%
of critical infrastructure respondents plan to increase or significantly increase mobile security spending in the next year.
88%
recognize the increasing importance of AI-assisted cybersecurity solutions.
The importance of an integrated approach to securing mobile networks
Only a platform-based approach to cybersecurity can manage the technological and architectural complexity associated with mobile connectivity to deliver effective and efficient protection and support compliance. Unlike point solutions, a cybersecurity platform integrates vendor-specific and third-party capabilities, allowing for greater automation, visibility and collaboration across endpoints, networks, clouds, applications and services. A mature cybersecurity platform will reduce operational costs, drive operational efficiencies and optimization, improve the organization’s security posture overall and help maintain business continuity.
A platform approach offers several benefits, beginning with consolidated coverage that ensures organizations have fewer cybersecurity vendors to manage. It also features natively integrated capabilities that share information such as events, threats and telemetry from different parts of the network. This enhances visibility and control. By adding a high degree of automation, such a platform will be able to help reduce human error, accelerate threat response, improve outcomes and free staff to work on higher-value tasks.