The New York Times recently reported that hackers from China have resumed attacks on U.S. targets, despite efforts by the Obama Administration to curb these intrusions. According to the article and a report by a security company, Mandiant, hackers from China have been behind…

scores of thefts of intellectual property and government documents over the past five years…They have stolen product blueprints, manufacturing plans, clinical trial results, pricing documents, negotiation strategies and other proprietary information from more than 100 of Mandiant’s clients, predominantly in the United States. 

For some, the thought of a data breach means stolen credit card numbers and identity theft. For others, it involves trade secret information, often critical data that provides a significant competative advantage in the global marketplace. In the worst case, it involves military and other secrets that could jeopardize national security.  

Businesses need to assess and address these risks from an enterprise-wide perspective and on a continuous basis. A key source of these risks, as many experts have noted, is the explosion of smartphone utilization. So, in addition to network and perimeter e-security, a good place for many companies to start is dealing with the rapid evolution to a mobile workforce and the demand by employees to use their own devices. One approach is to adopt a comprehensive "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) policy. Of course, mobile devices are only one aspect of an organization’s information systems to be safeguarded, but they do create significant vulnerabilities.