5 Best Practices for Meeting the Mobility Security Challenge

Woman holding tablet computerA universal theme among enterprise IT leaders I talk to is mobility, especially the rise of BYOD, and how it has made securing the enterprise increasingly complex and intimidating.

This isn’t surprising given that in our recent Dell global security survey, 93 percent of decision makers allow BYOD despite a sizable number saying mobility was the root cause of a breach!

How can you satisfy user demand and protect your network? With established best practices backed by flexible, proven mobility solutions. With that in mind, here are five best practices for meeting the mobile security challenge:

  1. Build a network infrastructure optimized for BYOD and mobility—This enables you to account for the rise in bandwidth-intensive tasks, like video streaming to mobile devices, while validating personal devices and mobile apps before letting them connect to the network.
  2. Create a mobile user/remote access policy—Insist that employees use a PIN or strong password to access a device’s operating environment and apps. This is a good first line of defense if a device is lost or stolen. Insist that your secure mobile access solution supports context-aware authentication, network access controls and a virtual private network to allow only authorized users and mobile apps, as well as validated devices, to access corporate resources. These capabilities reduce the risk of compromised devices and mobile apps being used as conduits for malware to infect corporate resources. Equally important is educating employees to eliminate behaviors, such as using WiFi hotspots without a VPN connection that can introduce malware and expose corporate information to significant risk. Finally, deploy systems management on all mobile devices so OS security updates are automatically installed.
  3. Encrypt data on devices—Protect data by setting and centrally administering encryption policies based on users, groups and data sensitivity. Encrypting and decrypting files on Windows, Android and iOS tablets and smartphones dramatically reduces the potential for security problems.
  4. Use secure desktop and mobile workspaces—Separate enterprise and personal apps and data by creating a container, a walled-off corporate workspace environment, on personal devices. This prevents commingling of the two worlds and helps reduce the threat of corporate information being compromised. It also protects user privacy and keeps personal data from being accidentally wiped by IT.
  5. Implement an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution—Select an IAM solution that supports access control policy, the separation of duties and single sign-on. An IAM solution should also support identity governance and privileged account management across mobile and on-premises apps to dramatically reduce the likelihood of security issues. A well-executed IAM strategy can also simplify compliance by moving key activities to line-of-business managers, who actually know why access should and shouldn’t be granted.

Enterprise-wide mobility and BYOD don’t have to be intimidating. With a best practices approach and a proven technology solution, you can keep users happy while keeping your network secure.

With Dell Enterprise Mobility Management, we make it easy for you to manage all the devices in your environment, regardless of who owns them. Our solution blends the company’s industry-leading secure remote access from Dell SonicWALL, encryption from Dell Data Protection | Encryption, mobile device management from Dell Wyse, systems management from Dell KACE and new, application-based secure workspaces to reduce cost, complexity and risk.

Drop me a line at Tom_Kendra@Dell.com to share your ideas on how EMM can help meet your mobility security challenges.

About the Author: Tom Kendra