Page 52 - FCW, Sept/Oct 2018

EMERGING CYBERSECURITY
The promise and
pitfalls of mobility
Paul Battaglia
Vice President of Government Sales, BlackBerry
Protecting mobile devices
Mobile phones store a wide array of information these days, which makes them attractive targets for adversaries, terrorists, organized crime and independent hackers who are now using malware to compromise phones.
For example, members of Congress who serve on an intelligence committee might travel overseas in the course of their duties and could easily have a mobile phone lost or stolen. That device possesses a treasure trove of information for adversaries. It’s the type of scenario that keeps government security officers awake at night.
One way to protect mobile devices is by using derived credentials, an approach that produces a certificate right on employees’ phones to verify that they are who they
say they are. The Defense Department is exploring that technology as a possible replacement for Common Access Cards.
In addition, recent data shows that attacks on mobile devices are rising 20 percent each year. In 2017, hackers exploited the KRACK Wi-Fi vulnerability to attack mobile phones via the Apple iOS in particular. Rather
than targeting the hardware, they went after information, such as the contacts on a phone.
The Air Force, among other agencies, was protected against the attacks because officials used containerization on employees’ phones. If they had not, more than 22,000 mobile phones in the hands of Air Force leaders could have been compromised.
Speeding the procurement process
The best policies focus on managing mobility in conjunction with all the other devices on an agency’s network.
Mobile devices are the new frontier for hackers and adversaries — and for the agencies that must secure them
IN OUR INCREASINGLY
connected world, mobile technology
represents an unprecedented opportunity and an unprecedented risk. Experts estimate that more than 8 billion devices are connected to the internet worldwide, and there will be three times
as many over the next several years. As the internet of things expands, all manner of devices and appliances are connecting to major networks, including those run by the
government. All those connections offer new points of entry for hackers.
A report released by the Department of Homeland Security last year states that mobile devices extend the enterprise’s borders beyond the physical barriers that used to protect agencies from attacks. Additionally, those devices have a full range of sensors that enable new types of attacks on them and on the systems they touch.
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