Security must be a priority in smart offices

Businesses all over the globe are faced with a tough challenge: to make their "smart offices" as secure and safe as possible. This is according to a new report by Samsung, which says that by 2021, there will be 7.3 billion connected IoT devices.

Each device also represents a security challenge, so it will be "critical" to secure each and every one. Samsung says businesses have up to three years to secure themselves, otherwise they’re risking being left behind as the market moves forward.

The business landscape is facing significant changes, with a "highly dispersed workforce" that wants to work on different devices, at different times, at different places. Many businesses are still lagging adopting new technologies making this type of work a reality.

The report says technology is advancing much faster than organizations, which are having a hard time adapting behaviors and working practices. Samsung says businesses need to "wake up to that now."

"Powerful tools such as Samsung Knox are already available to help realize this future but increasingly tools augmented with AI will ensure workers have a consistent experience no matter what devices they use," say Nick Dawson, global director Knox Strategy at Samsung.

Besides security, there are two more key areas organizations need to pay attention to: millennials (which it calls a "new cohort of talent"), and predictive intelligence.

"Samsung’s 'Open Economy' report highlights just how far technology and the way we work has evolved in recent years, identifying a huge shortfall in how prepared businesses are to meet the challenges of this new landscape," says Graham Long, vice president of Enterprise Business at Samsung.

"Having the right security processes in place will be critical as organizations build the foundations needed to become more open, inclusive and productive in this new way of doing business. One of the reasons for this is as our reliance on using and holding confidential information on smartphones increases, so will the number and complexity of threats by hackers targeting these devices. However, finding a mobile security solution that is both resilient and user-friendly can be a challenge, which is why Samsung designed KNOX -- a defense-grade security system, to allow businesses to secure, manage and customize their mobile devices."

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