New trends such as bring your own device (BYOD) and regulations requiring businesses to control network access for all devices and applications may be increasing market growth, but the downside of this increase in mobile device usage is additional entry points for cyber criminals.
Demand for mobile endpoint protection solutions that protect against hackers using software (malware) is greater than ever. The new analysis, "Analysis of the Global Mobile Endpoint Protection Market," by Frost & Sullivan found the market earned revenue of $433.5 million in 2012 and estimates this to reach $1 billion in 2017. The analysis found endpoint security specialists McAfee and Symantec lead the market.
"Smartphones may fail to meet organizational security and compliance policy requirements as they are extremely susceptible to mobile malware breaches and unwanted or high-risk mobile applications," said Chris Rodriguez, network security senior industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "The need to counter these new attack vectors presents a tremendous opportunity for developers of endpoint security software."
Emerging technologies such as cloud computing and virtualization are also in jeopardy of being the targets of an attack. Enterprises are investing in mobile endpoint security software and developing multi-layered, defense-in-depth strategies to protect data and the actual device.
With market growth comes competition from mobile security products. Mobile device management (MDM) is said to be the first step in evaluating security needs and an alternative solution to mobile endpoint security solutions. The downside of the product is that it does not address mobile malware and unwanted, high-risk mobile applications the way mobile endpoint security solutions do.
"Mobile endpoint protection vendors should seek to acquire MDM companies to enable a robust enterprise endpoint security and device management portfolio," Rodriguez said. "Leveraging new technologies such as cloud-based malware analysis, application wrapping, and containerization to deliver innovative solutions will further widen the global customer base."
