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Why Mobile Security is Dangerously Overlooked (And What To Do About It)
MDM is not a security solution. It never was. It was never designed to be. Yet, for some reason, companies keep treating MDM as if it’s some kind of security blanket—as if deploying it means their mobile security problems are magically solved.
Dani Woolf
03 Mar • Read Time: 6 minutes
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MDM is not a security solution.
It never was. It was never designed to be.
Yet, for some reason, companies keep treating MDM as if it’s some kind of security blanket—as if deploying it means their mobile security problems are magically solved.
They aren’t.
In this episode of Audience 1st Podcast, I sat down with Rocky Cole, co-founder of iVerify, to get some brutally honest insights about the current state of mobile security—and it's not pretty.
Mobile security is still treated like an afterthought in enterprise security strategies, despite the fact that businesses are now prime targets for mobile-based attacks.
We’re past the point of ignorance.
This is now willful denial.
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Insights and Key Takeaways
MDM Is NOT a Security Tool—It’s a Management Tool.
One of the first things Rocky said stopped me in my tracks:
"The biggest myth about mobile security? That MDM does anything useful from a security perspective."
MDM (Mobile Device Management) was never built for security—it’s a tool for IT teams to control settings, enforce policies, and remotely wipe devices. That’s it.
What MDM can’t do:
Detect zero-day threats
Stop malware
Prevent advanced spyware like Pegasus
Monitor fileless attacks against the OS
And yet, companies keep acting like MDM is some kind of cybersecurity silver bullet.
It’s not.
MDM won’t save you from real-world attacks.
It won’t even tell you if a device has been compromised.
Mobile Threats Are Already Inside the Enterprise.
There’s this weird assumption that mobile threats are only a problem for high-profile targets—journalists, activists, government officials.
That used to be the narrative. Not anymore.
Rocky and his team at iVerify ran a study where they scanned thousands of mobile devices for signs of Pegasus spyware.
The results?
One in 1,000 devices was infected.
One hundred percent of new detections were in the business sector.
Read that again.
Not journalists. Not activists. Not spies.
But executives. Business leaders. People working in finance, real estate, and logistics.
This isn’t some hypothetical doomsday scenario—it’s happening right now.
And yet, most security leaders still aren’t doing a damn thing about it.
"People think the threats aren’t widespread. We’ve proven that’s not the case. One infection per 1,000 phones—just talking about Pegasus alone—is already on par with desktop malware rates."
The numbers don’t lie. So why are businesses still looking the other way?
Security Teams Aren’t in Denial—They’re Just Drowning.
Here’s something that surprised me.
It’s not that security leaders don’t believe mobile security is a problem. They do. The data is clear.
So why aren’t they doing anything about it?
It’s not denial. It’s operational exhaustion.
"It wasn’t that they doubted the data. It was more like… ‘I’m drowning in alerts, my team is exhausted, and I literally don’t have the bandwidth to care about one more thing right now.’"
Security teams are already fighting fires every single day.
Adding another layer of security complexity—especially one that involves personal mobile devices—feels like a logistical nightmare.
The idea of rolling out yet another security solution—one that employees are guaranteed to hate because of “privacy concerns”—probably sounds like a headache no one wants.
But that doesn’t change the reality:
Hackers don’t care if your team is overwhelmed.
They’re still coming for your mobile devices, whether you’re ready or not.
The Industry Needs to Stop Treating Phones Like Toys.
Right now, most companies still operate under this weird, outdated assumption that phones are somehow different from desktops.
They’re not.
"The right answer is simple: Treat phones like computers. Just apply the same security standards we already use for traditional endpoints."
Your phone is a computer.
Your phone is connected to corporate networks.
Your phone is where the most sensitive business conversations happen.
"We’ve reached the same inflection point that desktops hit 10-15 years ago. The security industry needs to catch up—fast."
The tools already exist.
The technology is there.
But until businesses actually wake up and treat mobile devices like the security risks they are, nothing is going to change.
Final Thoughts
The state of mobile security right now is something that cannot be overlookeed.
Businesses are ignoring the problem even as mobile attacks surge.
Security teams are too overwhelmed to prioritize it.
Companies still rely on MDM and think they’re covered.
None of this is sustainable.
The reality is that:
Your mobile devices are already targets.
MDM is not enough.
Attackers are ahead, and we’re playing catch-up.
We either course-correct now, or we wait until a major breach forces us to.
Until next time,
Dani
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