Most end users are no strangers to phishing — and prevention tools for desktops have been in place for years. Cyber attackers use phishing attempts to trick people into downloading malware by clicking a bad link or directing them to log into an unsafe or spoofed website in order to steal their password. On desktops, certain security rules apply, such as email protection and web content filtering. But what if the end user is on a mobile device? What security practices are in place? Our mobile devices are an integral part of our personal and professional lives, especially for hybrid and remote workers. When it comes to phishing on mobile devices, the risk extends beyond email to SMS, social media, gaming, payments, and third-party messaging platforms.
Why do we need to protect against phishing on mobile? Phishing is the number one threat on mobile, according to Verizon’s Business 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report. Attackers leverage natural curiosity, impulsiveness, ambition, fear, and empathy to fool end users, and they can send a phishing link in virtually any app on mobile devices. If a phishing email is opened on a laptop, we can hover over a link to see where it redirects and potentially identify a suspicious URL, unknown sender, or something else fishy. On mobile devices, however, displaying the URL is not as obvious and intuitive, so we are more likely to fall into the trap, click the link, and potentially expose our devices to malware.
Workspace ONE Mobile Threat Defense delivers a seamless mobile security experience
VMware Workspace ONE Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) is our latest UEM-integrated advanced mobile endpoint security solution for Android, iOS, and Chrome. Powered by Lookout, Mobile Threat Defense helps organizations detect and respond to mobile threats and increases attention to mobile security best practices and standards. Our solution integrates with Workspace ONE, making it easy to deploy and manage specialized protection, orchestrate remediation across the Workspace ONE platform, and share information across security and IT stakeholders. As my colleague, Cile Montgomery, noted at VMware Explore 2022 US, “Mobile devices are a work essential. The potential risk to businesses has grown exponentially with the threat of machine-in-the-middle attacks, device and OS vulnerabilities, and leaky and malicious applications.”
Announcing the beta of Mobile Threat Defense Phishing and Content Protection
In the past, phishing has been hard to protect against on mobile. In response, today we’re announcing at VMware Explore 2022 Europe an upcoming beta program for the Workspace ONE Mobile Threat Defense Phishing and Content Protection (PCP) capability. The beta will aim to address conflicts our customers encounter with multiple VPN configurations — one for filtering and one for VPN — on a single device.
What will make Workspace ONE Mobile Threat Defense Phishing and Content Protection unique is that it will be built directly into Workspace ONE Tunnel and will work seamlessly with other Tunnel capabilities, like secure traffic tunneling to the data center or cloud-based applications, single sign-on, and security posture-based access controls. Unlike traditional VPNs, Workspace ONE Tunnel is a proxy for secure access into internal applications but not part of the network, thus limiting network exposure to risky content and preserving employee privacy.
What’s next?
Register for the upcoming beta by logging into the Workspace ONE Beta Portal and adding Workspace ONE Mobile Threat Defense as a product you’re interested in, within your user profile. Once added, you can join the beta by finding Workspace ONE Mobile Threat Defense Phishing and Content Protection Beta in the program list. We also invite you to see our solution in action! Watch the Mobile Threat Defense demo video, check out the solution brief (PDF), and review the VMware Docs.
For more VMware Explore Europe news, see our VMware Explore 2022 Europe Anywhere Workspace, Workspace ONE, and Horizon announcements overview and all the articles in our VMware Explore 2022 category.
