There’s an old maxim that advises managed services providers (MSPs) to focus on tasks that the average IT organization either doesn’t do all that well or would simply rather not have to do at all. Mobile computing appears to be an example of both, with demand for managed mobile services expected to be one of the fastest-growing managed services for most of the next decades. According to a market research report published by Market.us, the global mobile managed services market size is projected to grow to $391 billion by 2034, representing a 27 percent compound annual growth rate.
MSPs have room to grow in mobile services
The global mobile managed services market in North America is valued at $35.2 billion, with North America contributing 40 percent of the total, or $14.1 billion. The report estimates the U.S. mobile managed services market at $11.9 billion.
Telecommunications service providers originally sold smartphones or mobile computing devices to organizations. Many of these organizations also consume additional managed support services from those providers. However, other reports suggest there is room for other MSPs that might be more proactive.
For example, an analysis conducted by Zimperium, a provider of tools and platforms for securing mobile computing devices and applications, finds that more than 50 percent of devices are running outdated software or versions of operating systems that are known to be compromised
That same report finds that over 60 percent of iOS apps and 34 percent of Android apps lack basic code protection. It also reveals that nearly 60 percent of iOS apps and 43 percent of Android apps are vulnerable to leaking personally identifiable information (PII). In fact, smishing attacks that employ text messages to convince users to share PII data have become especially problematic. They account for over two-thirds (69 percent) of mobile phishing attacks. Overall, smishing attacks involving text messages have increased by 22 percent. According to the report, vishing attacks involving phone calls have risen by 28 percent.
The mobile gap is real, and MSPs can close it
In many instances, mobile computing devices and applications represent the soft cybersecurity underbelly of organizations that cyber criminal syndicates have learned how to compromise at global scale.
Most MSPs are already securing laptop devices and the applications running on them as part of their endpoint services. End users are increasingly using smartphones and tablets to access corporate applications. Many of these applications are software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms, and attackers can easily compromise them by stealing user credentials. Cybercriminals often target mobile computing devices as the initial point of compromise. They use phishing attacks to steal the credentials needed to access corporate applications.
The size of the managed mobile services opportunity will vary. It depends on how critical these applications are to an organization. Any business that makes a mobile application available to its end customers has a lot at stake. Success depends on the ability to deliver an excellent and secure user experience. MSPs must prove they have the skills and tools to consistently deliver the right outcomes.
Photo: tsingha25 / Shutterstock
This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.