Mobile

Does your organization allow employees to access company resources such as email or other applications via mobile devices? If so, then you owe it to your employer to learn how to secure these devices and, more importantly, the corporate assets they access. Last week we pointed you to a really good report, "A Window into Mobile Device Security," from Carey Nachenberg, VP and fellow at Symantec Corporation. Nachenberg describes the native security capabilities of two of the top mobile operating systems: iOS from Apple and Google's Android. The Symantec report looks at how these OSs compare with regards to five pillars of security: traditional access control, application provenance, encryption, isolation, and permission-based access control.

These days users expect to be able to use their iPads inside the business and as thousands of software vendors release applications for the iOS platform which provide data mobility and usability benefits to employees, the prospect of the iPad as a business device is becoming a forced reality. Many companies are looking to deploy Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools to manage the devices, and vendors like McAfee have included MDM features into their end point management solutions.

HP straddles two worlds: enterprise systems and consumer electronics. Its new TouchPad tablet is intended to satisfy the needs of both. But you'll have to look harder and wait longer to see HP's unfolding enterprise plan for TouchPad. The Wi-Fi TouchPad, running the webOS firmware created by Palm, goes on sale Friday starting at $500 in stores ranging from Amazon to Walmart, the same outlets that handle its PCs and printers. But the tablet is "enterprise ready," says HP's David Gee, vice president of marketing and enterprise solution for the Palm Global Business Unit. He oversees the marketing strategy for all webOS devices as well as development of webOS-based "solutions" for business customers.

The main benefit of smartphones is the potential productivity gains they could bring to businesses. As well as allowing employee-owned devices into the office, your enterprise should also consider which platform fits best when providing these devices to workers. This paper outlines the security capabilities of each of the major smartphone platforms. Read now to discover which platform could keep your organization most safe.

With ever more employees clamoring to use smartphones for both personal and business purposes, IT and security managers are forced to answer tough questions: First, will there be sanctioned enterprise adoption of Apple's iPhone -- not to the mention the iPad -- as well as smartphones based on Google's Android operating system, if not even more varieties? And, if employees want to use their own smartphone or iPad in business, will that be allowed? Finally, how will the enterprise prepare to exert management and security controls in a multi-operating system smartphone environment, or figure out how to secure data on a device that the employee, not the enterprise, officially owns?

iPhone supports Mobile Device Management, giving businesses the ability to manage scaled deployments of iPhone across their organizations. These Mobile Device Manage- ment capabilities are built upon existing iOS technologies like Configuration Profiles, Over-the-Air Enrollment, and the Apple Push Notification service and can be integrated with in-house or third-party server solutions. This gives IT departments the ability to securely enroll iPhone in an enterprise environment, wirelessly configure and update settings, monitor compliance with corporate policies, and even remotely wipe or lock managed iPhone devices.

Most iPhone users are confident that using a passcode to secure their devices means that even if they lost them or they get stolen, their data will be protected from prying eyes. Unfortunately for them, Bernd Marienfeld, an information security professional, has discovered last week that the passcode protection can be bypassed by simply connecting the iPhone 3GS in question to a computer running Ubuntu 10.04.

As more iPhones go to work, IT shops have more options to handle them. Apple Inc.'s iPhone has always had something of an image problem in the workplace, which isn't surprising given that Apple has always marketed its smartphone more to consumers than to the business world. In fact, when the iPhone debuted in 2007, there was no way to put third-party apps on one without jailbreaking the device, it didn't support 3G data networks, it didn't integrate with Microsoft's Exchange, and you had to use iTunes to activate it initially and back up or sync data later on. Plus, there were security concerns, since there was no way to require a passcode, encrypt business data or remotely wipe an iPhone if it was lost or stolen.

New MobileIron platform for BlackBerry, iPhone, and others promises to make smartphone management enterprise-class