Facing up to the mobile revolution
- Article 26 of 33
- SC Magazine, April 2011
Whether companies are actively encouraging their employees to work on the move, or staff are simply using personal mobile devices of their own accord, security professionals face a major new headache in protecting their organisations from threats, writes Rob Buckley.
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Largely, network operators are unwilling to discuss the security measures they take for their consumers, although Vodafone admits to content filtering and automatic malware protection in its data network. However, for business customers, they do offer more services.
"We do a number of things," says Scott Petty of Vodafone's business products and services. "We look at device security, including encrypting data - we've launched some tools ourselves for that. We also offer remote lock, VPNs and help organisations set up app distribution whitelists and blacklists." Vodafone also offers a managed mobility service.
Orange works with SMEs and larger enterprises to enhance their security. "We've had in our portfolio for some time the Orange Link Voice and Data VPN, which provides secure, easy connectivity," says Orange UK's head of corporate propositions, Michael Lawrence. "That can not only identify the user by mobile telephone IMEI but also tell when the SIM has been taken out of the device and put in something else." It's a service available for a monthly charge, and requires users to have Orange SIMs. The company also provides a higher level of security at CESG impact level five through measures such as a Becrypt partnership, and has consultants who can discuss mobile security policies.
Both Orange and Vodafone are evolving their security portfolio as mobile threats change. "Device management for end-users is an evolving ecosystem, because of things like the bring-your-own-device trend," says Lawrence. "We want to make sure our portfolio responds to needs and enables IT managers to deliver benefits. So we are developing device management capabilities and moving into partnerships to enrich our offer around AV, for example."
Vodafone's Petty says a lot of effort is going into ensuring mobile internet connections are as secure as possible. "That will continue to be the focus. We're also leveraging SIMs as a second factor in authentication. We have large teams dedicated to products and technologies."
Ten of the best business apps
1 Cisco WebEx (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry)
Connect to a Cisco WebEx meeting wherever you are, on 3G or WiFi. You can also schedule and start meetings, as well as view documents and applications and access screen-sharing with live annotations.
2 Dropbox (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry)
Dropbox allows users to synchronise files in a folder on their computer with the cloud, other computers and smartphones. The Dropbox mobile application lets users upload files and sync them to Dropbox, as well as share links to files in their Dropbox with other people, so they can download them to their own computers or mobile devices.
3 LinkedIn (iPhone, Android [beta], BlackBerry)
LinkedIn, the social media site for business professionals, now offers dedicated mobile applications for keeping up to date with colleagues, arranging meetings with them, messaging them or finding out what the latest 'buzz' is.
4 iShare (iPhone)
Connect to SharePoint Server securely to access company and team collaboration information, including documents, lists, announcements, tasks and meetings.
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