Mobile Devices and Network Security

Mobile devices and network security
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Introduction
Technology has come up with increased need to connect to the internet either for business
purpose of social activities. After invention of internet, it was a common understanding that
network connection was solely preserved for computers. Interestingly, this norm has changed
and devices with capability to connect to the network and subsequently to the internet are
increasing substantially. With innovation of network enabled devices such as smartphones and
tablets, security concern to both data and the connected devices has turned to be paramount.
Since organizations and individual users make use of the network for business purpose, failing to
secure both devices and network expose business to operational risks (Gelenbe et al. 2013, pp.
8). Though intensive network security considerations might be a challenge to novice network
users, there are simple and obvious measures that all mobile users should be able to setup. Some
of the mobile security threats that mobile users should check on are; use of unsecured wireless
networks, network spoofing, phishing attacks, spyware and data leakage. Mobile network
security should be of major concern to the entire technology fraternity due to data confidentiality
and increase in number of malware attacks. Mobile device security should focus on full data
protection as well as network that is connected to these portable devices.
Operational fundamentals and networking principles
Internet connection has been adopted as the norm and modern tool in business operations.
To connect to the internet, devices should be connected to the network in order to facilitate
sharing of the data among entities. Important to note is that once connected to the internet,
mobile users do not bother on security of their own or organizational data. By considering the
security of the data and any network enabled device connected to the internet, networking
principles are of great importance. It is only through network connected to the device that

determines which information can be shared to and from individual device (Yang et al. 2015,
pp.77). First, unsecured wireless network has become common in public places and even
workplaces. As a result, due to increase on need to access various online services, network users
do not intent to burn their cellular data while wireless hotspots are available for free. As much as
there are norms of free network, unsecured network should not be used to access sensitive and
personal data such as banking services and credit cards. Making connection to unsecured
wireless network exposes device users to threats such as hacking and malware attacks. Malware
and hackers can invade the device without user’s knowledge and retrieve data for other
unauthorized uses (Liang et al. 2014, pp.36). Since wireless network supports many users at the
same time, threats can be posed from both within and outside the network. Next, data leaks has
been a major challenge that mobile users face by allowing network connection from their
devices. With increase in use of mobile application that operate on network connection, it is clear
that most of the applications are spoofing data from these devices. Mobile users should be
concerned before allowing applications to have access to any of their personal data stored locally
on their devices (Roman, Lopez & Mambo 2018, pp. 686). Despite these apps being free,
important to note is that they send data to remote servers. Collected data is stored and controlled
by third parties which in turn can be mined by advertisers and cyber criminals.
To compact mobile vulnerabilities, secure web gateway are preferred as they offer strong
security on wireless network. With ever increasing use of mobile devices in both industrial and
personal level, secure getaways can be set up at DNS and IP layers to protect users from
malicious attackers. Similarly, end point security and virtual private network (VPN) can also be
used to secure portable network enabled devices (Eslahi et al. 2014, pp.189). Setting up network
configurations help organizations and individuals prevent malicious attacker on mobile users