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Google moves quickly to patch a software flaw on its Android mobile platform. Meanwhile an e-commerce site owned by mobile phone provider Sony Ericsson gets hacked. Wherever you turn, the security of our increasingly ubiquitous mobile systems seems to be in the news.

Mobility has become a way of life for the typical enterprise end-user. According to a recent study produced by security firm McAfee, reliance on mobile devices is significant and accelerating, with almost seven in 10 organisations more reliant on mobile devices than they were 12 months ago.

On the one hand, this mobility and anytime, anywhere access enables greater convenience, flexibility and productivity for the end-user; on the other, however, it represents a set of under-recognised security risks to the organisation’s IT infrastructure and critical data, as well as providing greater complexity and higher cost of management to already over-worked security execs.

For example, four in 10 firms have admitted mobile devices containing critical business data have been lost or stolen, while the study revealed that more than a third of these breaches had a financial impact on the firm in question. What’s more, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of mobile devices connected to an organisation’s network are also used for personal activities, increasing the security risks even further.

“Data loss remains a huge problem for both consumers and businesses,” says Todd Gebhart, EVP and General Manager of McAfee’s Consumer, Small Business and Mobile division. "Consumers need tools to protect their personal information and businesses need a way to protect their valuable intellectual property.”

In fact, the diversity and complexity of the IT infrastructure is actually the number one inhibitor of current investments in protecting and managing enterprise endpoints, according to recent Aberdeen Group research.

“Successfully managing the mobility and diversity of the enterprise’s computing platforms, network connectivity, applications and data – while simultaneously balancing the needs of multiple constituencies – requires organisations to have a greater degree of integration, visibility and control over their network devices, endpoint systems and end-user identities,” explains Derek Brink, Aberdeen Group’s Vice President and Research Fellow for IT Security.

Brink believes achieving success in this dynamic environment requires a 360-degree approach that provides security executives with insight into the potential risks inherent within their own organisations – as well as the means to mitigate against such threats. He lists enterprise visibility into the current status of a company’s network devices, endpoints and end-users, a common management view of relevant information and events, and the ability for automated enforcement of policies, as essential.

“As mobility and the complexity of the IT infrastructure increases, the importance of this information transforms beyond mere reporting on security and compliance to satisfy the next auditor, to providing management with visibility and insight into the underlying services that support the organisation’s critical activities,” says Brink.

Managing and securing an increasingly mobile workforce is a topic that will no doubt be top of the agenda at the NextGen Security Europe Summit 2011, which takes place from 14-16 June at The Oitavos, Cascais in Portugal.

This closed-door summit, hosted by GDS International, features some of the leading voices in the European security sector. Alongside Aberdeen Group’s Derek Brink, these include Chris Van Den Brink, CISO at Akzo Nobel; Rainer Kessler, Group Information Security Officer for UBS; Rolf Hafner, CISO at Volkswagen; and Mark McFadyen, Global Head of Information Security at Royal Bank of Scotland. Analyst partners Quocirca will provide additional insight on a range of topics, including end-point security.

Along with addressing workforce-related information security risks, other key topics for discussion will include dealing with the adoption of cloud and virtualisation technologies, tackling the social media explosion and how to build a better organisational security culture.

NextGen Security Europe Summit 2011 is an exclusive C-level event reserved for 100 participants that includes expert workshops, facilitated roundtables, peer-to-peer networks and co-ordinated meetings.

For more information, visit www.ngsecurityeu.com