“Two people are in a jeans store. One person is using a Zebra mobile computer device, likely scanning or checking inventory, while the other person is browsing through a selection of jeans on display.”
By Chuck Bolen | March 19, 2025

What Your Mobile Devices and Favorite Jeans Might Have in Common

Hint: it has to do with “holes,” and not the cool kind. 

We can all agree that we need our mobile devices to be as secure as possible. No one wants to be hacked. No one wants to deal with the fallout of a breach. 

If you’re a small business owner, you could be out of business in six months because of how hard it is to recover from a single cybersecurity incident. If you’re in charge of a larger business, you might have to clean up the damage caused from leaked data for years. 

So, the question always becomes: Is there a “right way and wrong way” to think about mobile device security, especially when devices are integrated into your business? Or is this more of a sliding scale scenario where the “right” approach depends on your risk tolerance or vulnerability rating?

I asked two mobile device security experts – Erv Comer and Adam Arruda – to advise us on the right way to think about security because it’s something you and I should be thinking about every day.  

Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting to hear one of them compare mobile devices to jeans. But the analogy about “holes” makes a lot of sense when you hear it. So, this conversation is worth 10 minutes of your time today:

Remember, one bad actor who catches you in a moment of weakness could make one move and suddenly change your life – and the lives of your customers, partners, employees, and their families – for a very long time. 

Take the things you just heard from Adam and Erv to heart…and to whoever makes mobile device purchase decisions for your organization. 

(You can download the transcript here if easier to socialize with your colleagues.)

Remember, the person making that decision must weigh a lot of competing factors.  The company may have management on iPhones and subsidize Android phones for other employees. Other workers may access corporate systems from personal devices in a “bring-your-own-device” (BYOD) model, but those are unmanaged and entirely consumer grade. Giving employees corporate-owned-personally-enabled (COPE) devices they can take home with them allows for better management if secure access is supported by the manufacturer for the lifetime of the device. Certain employees will always need to use mobile devices that are purpose-built, custom-configured, and tightly secured for the job at hand. As the experts said in the video, security is essential for enterprise deployment.

You may also find these discussions helpful:

Having a “Secure Network” or “Secure Devices” Isn’t Enough Anymore. So, What Is?

Security-minded solution architects from Google Cloud and Qualcomm explain how far you’re going to have to go – and the lengths to which they’re going – to help protect your organization’s data.

When Sustainability and Security Align

As sustainability reporting leaps up boardroom agendas, a byproduct of enhanced visibility is uncovering the most secretive malware.

Ask the Expert: “Which Mobile Devices are More Secure: Android™ or iOS?”

There are rumors swirling that Android mobile devices aren’t as secure as iOS mobile devices. Let’s get the facts from an enterprise mobility expert and engineering fellow whose primary job is to design secure devices.

Ask the Expert: “What Questions Should I Be Asking Mobile Device Manufacturers About Security in My Solicitations?”

What questions should you be asking mobile device manufacturers about security in your solicitations? And what are Zebra’s responses to these questions? We ask a mobile security expert to weigh in on both.

 

 

Topics
Retail, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Hospitality, Transportation and Logistics, Public Sector, Field Operations, Warehouse and Distribution, Banking, Energy and Utilities, Security, Podcast, Handheld Mobile Computers, Tablets, Wearables,

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