IBM MaaS360 Mobile Security Index (MSI) takes real-world data from millions of devices managed by thousands of organizations to uncover the usage trends that are shaping enterprise mobility. The MSI provides an ongoing portrayal of how enterprises from all industries across the world are are addressing mobile security.
The MSI gives your organization the power to view overall mobile security scores by industry or region, stay up-to-date with emerging best practices, and compare your approach with that of your industry peers. Be sure to check back monthly for the latest insights and news.
Our methodology
The data behind the MSI is derived from proprietary MaaS360 databases. IBM has thousands of clients and millions of devices under management, and tracks more than 6,500 data points across various operating systems and hardware.
The first step in building the MSI was to identify the common policy attributes that equated specifically to security and could be compared across a wide sample of anonymous devices. All company information was scrubbed from the data set, but industry and location data were retained.
The final set of policy attributes were rated for importance and popularity and given an appropriate weight to create a scored index. This was subsequently subdivided into the four core areas of consideration: secure connectivity, device security, app security and data security. Device scores were finally aggregated using a generalized mean.
Within the MSI, our best-practice customers achieve scores in the high 80s, and any score above 80 represents a very strong standard for protection. It should be remembered that the MSI is based upon the policies and safeguards put in place by companies that have already implemented mobile security practices.
For the Compare my company self-assessment tool we've invited users to choose their industry, to provide a relevant security benchmark. We then prompted them to answer ten meaningful questions based on basic, common practice and best-in-class security settings for apps, data, connectivity and device management.
Scores for each of the questions are derived from the behavior of MaaS360 clients, and the relative importance of each security setting. This, in turn, is calculated based on the adoption levels of each setting. The final score of each user appears alongside their industry best-practice benchmark.
The best possible score on the Compare my company journey is 99 out of 100, as there’s always room for improvement. However, this is based only on the questions asked and is not a percentage score.
In reality, a score in the 80s is high and represents good practice. Considering all of the possible variables, it is indeed rare for a best-in-class company to achieve a score in the 90s. Please take the Compare my company test as it is intended: an interactive walk-through of the most important security factors within the mobile enterprise.
Finally, for the blogs and insight pieces that support the MSI, we have worked with the widest possible range of sources including all the devices under management in MaaS360 and third party data. Where we make important assertions about trends or vulnerabilities in the mobile enterprise, we will always link to the original data sources.
About IBM MaaS360
MaaS360 is the trusted enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution to thousands of customers worldwide from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses. We make working in the mobile age simple and safe by delivering comprehensive mobile security and management for devices, apps, documents and email. To learn more visit https://www.ibm.com/maas360.