Ellen Messer from Network World reports for 2012 “Security Minefield: ‘Bring your own device’ will bedevil IT security in 2012”. MDM or mobile device management could be your hottest acronym in 2012. As the adoption of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices continues rapidly, the need for enterprise IT to make decisions regarding the protection of these devices is becoming even more important. Combine that with the increase in malware threats for mobile devices and many enterprises’ allowance for employees to use their personal smartphones and tablets for business purposes, or “bring your own device”, and IT will have their hands full in the coming year.

On top of new mobile device management needs and the ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) trend, IT is likely to have to face the security consequences of their own virtualized networks and cloud-based services. Experts says that standard security controls such as data-loss prevention, anti-malware, encryption and intrusion prevention should not been forgotten. In fact, the need for regular assessments of how security vendors or cloud services support virtualized-oriented security is increasingly important.