Tough Call To Make

What are the risks of allowing the use of smartphones at the bank?

- Bruce Dennill

Employees aren’t just bringing their devices to work – they’re living on them. Checking one’s phone is the first and last thing many do every day. With smartphones becoming constant companions, hackers are seeking every avenue available to break into them. The nature and types of attacks are evolving rapidly, and mobile devices have become a critical part of enterprise cyber security efforts – with good reason.

“Using smartphones at a corporate enterprise might seem like the most routine habit in the world, but sometimes these smartphones are being used as a way to gain access to the enterprise’s Wi-Fi and sensitive data,” says Carey van Vlaanderen, CEO at ESET South Africa. In fact, today, corporates such as banks prohibit the use of cellphones on their premises. 

Putting ourselves in the shoes of an attacker, the first thing we’d try to do would be to see if we could connect to any of the Wi-Fi networks that the organisation in all likelihood has. It would not be unusual to find a number of networks within range, and it’s probable that at least one of them would be identified as belonging to the organisation or as exclusively for staff.