Verizon’s 2024 Mobile Security Index (MSI) finds that mobile and IoT devices have become operationally essential while creating a larger, harder-to-govern attack surface. In an April 2024 survey of 600 people responsible for security strategy, policy or management, 53% said their organization had experienced a mobile- or IoT-related security incident that caused data loss or downtime, and 85% said mobile-device threat risk had increased during the previous year.
The findings describe business leaders’ reported experiences and expectations—not a census of every organization, an observed attack-success rate or a product test. This article covers the 2024 edition; Verizon’s reports library now also lists a 2025 Mobile Security Index.
What the 2024 Mobile Security Index is
Verizon Business published the 48-page 2024 MSI on August 6, 2024. An independent market-research company surveyed 600 security decision-makers in April 2024. Contributors including Akamai, Allot, Cisco, Fortinet, Ivanti, Jamf and Lookout supplied incident and usage information. Contributor participation does not make the report a vendor ranking, endorsement or independent test.
The report examines mobile and IoT adoption, remote work, incidents, shadow IT, AI-assisted threats, critical infrastructure, security frameworks, spending and organizational controls.
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Key findings
| Finding | What it measures |
|---|---|
| 80% | Respondents who considered mobile devices critical to operations. |
| 95% | Surveyed organizations actively using IoT devices. |
| 96% | Critical-infrastructure respondents reporting IoT use. |
| 53% | Respondents reporting a mobile- or IoT-related incident that caused data loss or downtime. |
| 85% | Respondents saying mobile-device threat risk increased in the prior year. |
| 77% | Respondents who believed AI-assisted attacks, including deepfakes and SMS phishing, were likely to succeed. This is an expectation, not a measured success rate. |
| 92% | Organizations supporting some form of remote connectivity. |
| 55% | Organizations with more users and more mobile devices than a year earlier. |
| 84% | Respondents reporting higher mobile-security spending over the prior year. |
| 86% | Respondents anticipating further mobile-security spending increases in the coming year. |
| 89% | Critical-infrastructure respondents planning further mobile-security spending increases. |
| 88% | Critical-infrastructure respondents acknowledging the growing importance of AI-assisted cybersecurity solutions. |
Why mobile and IoT growth raises security risk
Phones, tablets, laptops, sensors, industrial equipment and other connected endpoints extend corporate access beyond traditional office networks. Each device can involve an operating system, applications, credentials, wireless connection, cloud service and third-party owner that must be governed.
Inventory and oversight gaps
Thirty-one percent of respondents said they lacked systems to track all organizational IoT devices, while 53% lacked centralized oversight of all IoT projects. Unknown assets cannot be reliably patched, monitored, retired or assigned an owner. Decentralized projects also make it difficult to apply one access policy or incident-response process.
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Weak device and application controls
The report highlights IoT devices with insecure or unchangeable credentials, devices without authentication, vulnerable or unpatched software, risky mobile applications and shadow IT. Personal devices can also blur responsibility between an employee, a business and a service provider.
Remote connectivity expands the path to business systems
With 92% of respondents supporting some form of remote connectivity, mobile endpoints frequently reach corporate identities, applications and data from networks the organization does not control. A larger mobile population—reported by 55% of organizations—multiplies the number of configurations and access decisions that security teams must maintain.
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What the AI finding does—and does not—say
The widely cited 77% figure means respondents believed AI-assisted attacks such as deepfakes and SMS phishing were likely to succeed. It does not mean 77% of attacks succeeded, that 77% of organizations were compromised, or that the survey measured real-world attack performance.
AI can make impersonation, message personalization and synthetic media faster and more convincing. Practical defenses therefore need to combine technical controls with verification procedures: require out-of-band confirmation for unusual payment or credential requests, train staff to treat urgent messages skeptically, and preserve reporting channels for suspected impersonation.
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What the incident and spending figures mean
The 53% incident result shows that reported harm is substantial among respondents, but it does not establish that mobile or IoT exposure caused every incident or predict the rate for all businesses. Likewise, the 84% and 86% spending figures show increased investment and planned investment; they do not demonstrate that controls are effective. The report describes a gap between confidence and incident experience, making measurement of outcomes as important as budget size.
Controls and frameworks discussed by the report
Build a complete device and project inventory
- Record corporate, personally owned and operational-technology devices that connect to business resources.
- Assign an owner, business purpose, software version, location and retirement date to each asset.
- Require security review before an IoT or mobile project moves into production.
Centralize policy and endpoint management
Mobile-device management (MDM) can enforce encryption, screen-lock, application and configuration policies, while mobile-threat-defense tools can identify malicious applications or network behavior. These categories are complementary; the MSI does not identify a universally best product.
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Strengthen identity and access
Use multifactor authentication, least privilege and conditional access so a stolen or compromised device does not automatically provide broad access. Identity and access management (IAM), virtual private networks (VPNs), security-service-edge (SSE) and secure-access-service-edge (SASE) architectures may fit different environments.
Apply Zero Trust and NIST CSF 2.0 principles
Zero Trust treats every access request as requiring verification rather than trusting a device because it is inside a network. NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 can organize governance, identification, protection, detection, response and recovery activities. The report presents these as organizational approaches, not as proof that adopting one framework alone prevents incidents.
Measure outcomes
- Percentage of mobile and IoT assets inventoried and covered by policy.
- Time to patch critical device and application vulnerabilities.
- Use of phishing-resistant or otherwise enforced multifactor authentication.
- Number and age of devices outside management or support.
- Time to detect, contain and recover from mobile or IoT incidents.
How critical-infrastructure organizations differ
Critical-infrastructure respondents reported especially broad IoT use (96%), strong recognition of AI-assisted defenses (88%) and a high intention to increase mobile-security spending (89%). Those figures indicate heightened attention in that sector, not proof that its controls are uniformly stronger. Industrial systems also bring availability, safety, legacy-device and regulatory constraints that must be considered when applying patches or changing authentication.
How to use the MSI in a security program
- Map the attack surface: inventory phones, tablets, laptops, sensors, industrial devices, applications, identities and network paths.
- Identify unmanaged exposure: find assets without an owner, authentication, current patches or centralized monitoring.
- Set minimum policy: define enrollment, encryption, screen-lock, approved applications, update deadlines, remote-wipe authority and acceptable personal-device use.
- Protect access: enforce multifactor authentication, least privilege and risk-based access decisions for mobile sessions.
- Prepare for impersonation: establish independent verification for sensitive requests and an easy route to report SMS phishing, deepfakes and suspicious applications.
- Test response: exercise lost-device, compromised-account, malicious-application and IoT-outage scenarios, including recovery of critical operations.
- Review suppliers and projects: require security ownership, update support, credential management and incident notification from device and service providers.
Limits to keep in mind
- The results are a survey of 600 security-responsible people conducted in April 2024, not a global census.
- Percentages describe respondents’ reports or expectations and may reflect perception, recall and organizational differences.
- The 77% AI number is a perceived likelihood of success, not an observed attack-success rate.
- Spending increases are not evidence that security investments worked.
- The report discusses technology categories and frameworks, not a product-by-product buying comparison.
The Bottom Line
Verizon’s 2024 MSI’s central message is operational: as mobile and IoT devices become indispensable, organizations must govern a much larger attack surface. Complete inventory, accountable ownership, secure access, managed devices, tested response and measurable outcomes matter more than spending increases or confidence alone.
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