Personal Mobile Device Management (PMDM): The Security Perspective

Abstract

Mobile devices are becoming more sophisticated and powerful day by day, since the devices can do so much and are available at a much lower cost. They seem to be everywhere. However, because of their capabilities, they require much better management practices than users are used to. Mobile device users have had several complaints about their devices. This could have been a result of poor management or the lack of technical know-how on the use of mobile devices beyond making or receiving calls and texting. Some users imagine how mobile phones suddenly malfunction, how information on their devices is revealed to unknown people and others how they cannot make use of their phones shortly after purchase. These problems could be classified as hardware, software and user-based problems. Ruggiero and Foote (2011) observed that; Many users may consider mobile phone security to be less important than the security of their PCs, but the consequences of attacks on mobile phones can be just as severe. Malicious software can make a mobile phone a member of a network of devices that can be controlled by an attacker. The security of mobile devices has not just become important but necessary as mobile device users are vulnerable to wireless technology, device loss and ignorance of high cybercriminals. This paper seeks to address these problems through a user-friendly questionnaire to be served to sampled mobile device users, so that they can provide an understanding of the risk associated with mobile devices, provide users with knowledge of the threats associated with mobile devices, and provide users with a list of safeguards and best practices on mobile device security.