Enterprises accounted for more than half of all mobile security software sales in the second half of 2014, as new research from Infonetics predicted the device protection market will grow 25 percent annually until 2018.
The emergence of “rogue apps” and ransomware such as screenlockers, mainly aimed at Android devices, caused revenue from mobile protection software to grow ten percent in the second quarter of 2014 to hit $466 million (€373 million), according to Infonetics.
Of this, enterprise client revenue accounted for 55% of the total mobile security market during the same period, with EMEA making up 29 percent of all sales.
Infonetics forecasted the market to continue to grow by a quarter each year through to 2018, by which time it will have hit $4.1 billion (€3.3 billion).
Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics, said: “The explosive growth we forecast for the mobile device security software market comes from the ever-expanding population of consumer and enterprise users looking to apply a consistent security policy to devices, combat a massive volume of threats, and deal with rogue apps and the emergence of revenue-generating threats like screenlockers.“
“We’re also watching the convergence of mobile device management, mobility, SSL VPN, and pure mobile device security because this union has a significant impact on the long-term opportunity for selling mobile security clients.”
In September, Alcatel-Lucent’s Kindsight Security Labs report revealed that 15 million smartphones were infected with malware during the first half of 2014, with infections rising 17 percent between January and June.
According to the vendor, Android smartphones are the easiest devices to target, with infections usually coming from malicious files hidden within trojan apps.
However, last week Apple said it had successfully identified and neutralised the WireLurker trojan that had been targeting iOS users in China, infecting devices via USB connections to steal personal information.
A separate report from Alcatel-Lucent revealed that fixed network malware had also hit an all-time high.
Have you taken our 2014/15 survey? Click here to take part.
Read more:
Selfmite SMS bug bites back with fresh security risks
Swiss telcos see “endless possibilities: with SIM-based authentication tech