Security: the hidden benefit of a mobile phone built with business in mind

A smartphone designed around security as well as productivity could prove worth its weight in gold if your enterprise is targeted by cybercriminals.

Cyberfraud is on the rise globally: Cybercrime Ventures estimate it will cost the world an incredible US$9.5 trillion in 2024. To put that in perspective, if cyberfraud were a country, it would be the world’s third largest economy.

At a more local level, the UK came eighth in a recent index ranking countries by the degree of cybercriminal threat – based on the prevalence, professionalism, technical sophistication and impact of attacks. Experts considered the UK to be a significant source of cybercrime, behind Russia, China and Korea but ahead of both Brazil and India. Meanwhile, the UK Government’s own 2024 Cyber security breaches survey found that 50% of all UK businesses, and nearly three-quarters of large businesses, had experienced an attack in the previous 12 months.

An ever-evolving threat

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming every aspect of society, and cybercrime is no exception. AI can be used in a wide range of ways by cybercriminals. Some involve automating and scaling established techniques like spear phishing (using targeted emails to trick a victim into giving away information) or ransomware attacks (hacking and disabling an IT system until money is paid). Others use AI to create sophisticated deepfakes, from videos to voice cloning, to be used in social engineering, which involves using psychological manipulation to induce a victim to act against their interests.

The cost to your business

Businesses are a prime target for the attention of professional fraudsters. The motivation is usually direct financial gain, through theft or extortion. In the most serious case last year, criminals demanded an incredible £65.7 million to return data after a ransomware attack on the Royal Mail. Despite refusing to pay the ransom, the cost of disruption, along with remedial action and improving resilience was estimated at around £10 million.

For smaller companies, the disproportionate impact in terms of damage to data, lost productivity, business disruption and the need to restore or renew hacked systems can deal a hefty blow to your bottom line. Apart from the direct costs of an attack, the legal and reputational consequences can also be both highly damaging and long lasting.

Is your mobile a weak link?

The rise of the smartphone has turned the typical work mobile from a way to stay in touch with the office and clients into a portable productivity powerhouse. But their very portability and flexibility makes mobile phones easy to steal and likely to contain a wealth of personal and professional information. Smartphones are often loaded with apps that could be susceptible to attack, and yet the technical safeguards they incorporate are still often less sophisticated than those employed on a typical business laptop.

The Pixel 9: designed with security in mind

Fortunately, AI isn’t just an advantage for fraudsters; employed effectively, it’s a powerful security tool that can help defend your business against criminals who want to steal your revenue or hold you to ransom.

Google’s Pixel phones are well known for their strong security features, including their robust protection against attacks on the processor that makes a fast mobile internet experience possible via 4G and 5G. This processor, known as the cellular baseband, is a key area of vulnerability for most smartphones and is often used by cybercriminals to infect your phone with malware.

Pixel 9 is built on the certified Titan M2^TM security chip and implements the most secure baseband to date. It comes with a list of features to help keep your business safe from any phish-y business or unwanted intrusion. The Pixel 9’s Gemini AI assistant enables direct integration with Google apps and content to provide contextual responses without compromising your privacy. Its Google Safe Browsing technology offers protection from real-time web-based threats by checking URLs against a blacklist of unsafe sites. And it removes unwanted distractions by filtering out spam calls, allowing your team to maintain their focus throughout the workday. What’s more, it comes with seven years of security updates to make sure that however rapidly cybercrime evolves, your business stays protected.

Learn more: Learn more about how Google’s Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL models can make your business more secure business by visiting our Google Pixel showcase here.

For more information on how to help your business become more secure, get 1-2-1 support from our friendly V-Hub Digital Advisers.

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