The vast majority of security professionals believe that mobile security levels are not high enough, according to a new analyst survey.

An immense 89 per cent of security professionals feel that the current level of awareness for mobile phone security is not adequate, while a further 46 per cent do not have a documented, specific security policy for mobile phones.

“Mobile phone security is an emerging discipline within information security” said Alan Goode, Managing Director, Goode Intelligence. “Mobility and convergence will be two of the biggest challenges for information security professionals over the coming years. More and more organisations are allowing mobile phones to access the enterprise network, and organisations must have effective and relevant information security policy and procedures and adequate technology controls to manage them. This needs to be addressed by the policy makers and the policy enforcers.”

The survey also found that although 46 per cent of security professionals believe the risk of an unauthorised user accessing an enterprise network with a mobile phone is low now, only 27 percent believe it will still be low in 2011. Significantly, 40 per cent believe that the risk will be high or very high within two years according to the report from analyst firm Goode Intelligence.

In a separate survey, Frost & Sullivan recently found that nearly twice as many European CXOs have acquired a smart phone in the last year alone. Interestingly, most CXOs own Blackberry handsets, but believe that iPhones are superior, according to the research.