The trend that users access data from their handheld devices with different operating systems has urged managers to build a system to manage and monitor their activities.

The statement was made by Pham Van Quang, the country sales manager of Dell Software, at the Security World 2014 Conference and Exhibition on March 19. 

Quang noted that the number of mobile devices had been increasing rapidly, and trends of using cloud, big data, and mobility had brought huge potential of risk. 

According to Dell's survey, 85 percent of businesses stated that their organisations would use cloud tools in a moderate to extensive manner during the next three years. By 2020, the volume of data stored will reach 35 zettabytes. Mobility source will shift from 62 percent and 38 percent for corporate and personal owned devices to 37 percent and 63 percent, respectively. As many as 79 percent of the surveyed companies experienced some form of significant security incident within the past year that had a financial and reputational impact. 

To assist governmental agencies, enterprises, and organisations to flexibly access resources across devices, the US corporation introduced its Next Generation Security solution. Quang elaborated that the solution will secure remote access requirements, including granular access control, flexible connectivity, and manageability. It will detect what is running on the end point device, protect applications with granular access control based on user identity and device integrity, and connect users securely and easily to applications on any device. 

Attending the forum, Goh Su Gim, the security advisor of F-Secure Corporation, remarked that targeted attacks were carried out through attachments with filenames pdf.exe, jpg.exe, doc.exe, and spoofed email addresses. Showing images of real Angry Birds and its fake game, Gim emphasised on the higher risk for users when they download games from application stores. 

I see a lot of Android malware and I think that currently, hackers are mainly targeting Android users," he claimed. Gim added that applications today use more permissions than ever, citing the example of The FlashLight App on Google Play, which asks the location of its users. 

Participating in the event, Cisco shared finer details about how transitioning to the cloud has driven organisations to challenge today's security assumptions and learn how they can utilise Cisco security solutions. 

"Smart security in the cloud means building confidence in risk management in which security needs should be adaptive and responsive, securing boundaries while demarcating physical and virtual resources, detecting problems, and enforcing policies," explained Phan Thanh Son, the partner director and chief technology officer for Cisco in Vietnam . 

"Cyber criminals are professional and well-resourced, and they will invest time and money for compromising your network. Once they are there, they will try to remain hidden and infiltrate further into your systems. Unlike the hackers of the early internet days, they do not want to be seen," he noted. 

The two-day event, which is considered the biggest and trusted national forum in Vietnam for information security, attracts senior technology professionals and consulting experts on information security and risk management from global enterprises such as Cisco, Huawei, Trend Micro, and Dell.