This year, the security of confidential information on mobile devices is a top concern for companies across the world. Executives are being urged to finalize mobile security strategies while IT departments are in the drivers seat for implementation. Screw-ups will assuredly have a lasting backlash on the parties that fail to prepare. To add to the stress, data growth is running rampant and the release of lost and stolen information has become more damaging with each new headline. The margin for error is thin indeed.

If your company has made major systematic changes, taken a closer look at its processes, or made changes to how it uses technology, you shouldn’t be surprised. These are all reactionary moves in face of a quickly changing landscape. For many companies, addressing the growing number of mobile workers has been the biggest struggle.

Every day, new devices equipped with new technology and sensitive data are connecting to the corporate network, spelling out potential for disaster for many CIOs. Who could blame them for being paranoid? The security of data is too important to ignore.

Take for example the results of a poll conducted by the Dimensional Research for Check Point Software Technologies. 71% of IT professionals believe an uptick in security events experienced by their company during the past two years can be attributed to increased mobile device use. On that point, 78% said they’ve seen such use of smartphones and tablets double in that time.

At first glance, it seems as if there’s a connection between the security incidents and the increased use of devices, or the iPads, iPhones, and Androids being brought to work by employees. Cloud computing, “hacktivism”, and mobility have brought a lot of change to the world of enterprise IT in recent years; the more reliant companies become on these new technologies and ideas, risk will continue to increase.

What we are unsure of, however, is the mobility environment of each IT professional polled, and what tools they were using at work. Without knowing, how can we attribute the rise in data breaches to smartphones and tablets? A mobile device management (MDM) solution allows proper implementation of a given mobile security strategy while giving the director the means to oversee their device inventory. In other words, it provides peace of mind in place of frustration.

What is your company doing to manage the mobile devices connecting to the corporate network? If devices are being kept at home as a preventative measure, you could be missing out on potential for increased productivity and a practical means for doing work. Share your story with us in the comments below.

Smartphone banking is today’s smart way of managing money on the go. We’ve all come to appreciate it for the simplicity and convenience it offers us. While the perks are great (quick access to funds, account balance summaries anytime, anywhere) safety and privacy have remained prime concerns.

For this reason, I’ve come up with a checklist of best practices to keep in mind while enjoying the smartphone banking experience:

1. Download your relevant banking application on the mobile device. Ensure that your banking app receives its software updates to avoid any exploitation of the software loopholes by hackers. Also, it is recommended that you use any tools or Internet browsers recommended by your bank. This way you may be certain that account information and any financial transactions are relayed in a secured and encrypted manner.
2. Refrain from using public wireless networks to avoid any hackers sniffing into your mobile device and stealing your important and confidential financial information. It’s a good idea to connect to your smartphone banking application over a secured or private wireless network.
3. Be cautious when accessing your account. Banking applications typically prompt the smartphone user for a login password each time they log in to keep a check on any fraud activity. If you find any unusual behavior while accessing your account details, report it to your bank for further investigation.
4. Cover your tracks! Some banking applications store sensitive and confidential data in clear text. After every mobile transaction, you must check for any data traces left behind on the phone.
5. Always lock your phone when not using it to prevent unauthorized user access. Check your phone settings and enable the auto-lock feature if you have a tendency to keep your phone unlocked.
6. Ensure that your mobile device has remote wipe installed or enabled. This security feature is a must; the foremost feature every smartphone user must set up lest the device falls into the wrong hands. Also, notify your financial institution about your lost device so that no texts or emails containing your account details or other financial matters will be sent to your mobile device.
7. Refrain from sending or sharing any financial data over text messages. It is an easy way of exposing critical information to hackers or cyber criminals. Also, delete or ignore any messages or emails received from unknown senders asking for your account details.
8. Use strong and complex passwords for your mobile banking account. It is a good practice to have passwords that are eight or more characters, using numbers, symbols, letters and punctuation instead of ‘1234’ or passwords based on your birthday or anniversary.

Do you have any recommendations for safe banking on smartphones? Please share your suggestions and comments below. If you’re a financial institution looking to keep your device inventory secure, see how an MDM solution can help.

“One day, the tablet will reign supreme over the laptop and PC.”

We’ve all heard the argument before. It could be years down the road, but that’s not to say it won’t happen… and the tireless work of Android and iOS application developers certainly isn’t hurting the tablet’s case. Today, app upgrades and new releases come to us at such a rate that its a true challenge to keep your personal device up-to-date. As we base our decision to go Tablet on price, features, and size, a complete transition will depend greatly on the success of the apps that are released. More specifically, it will depend on how much more benefit they bring us in comparison to our computer programs.

So which of these apps will play the biggest role in this transition? The equivalents of computer programs we utilize regularly for business purposes. Microsoft Office, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel being among the most popular.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal announced the release of a free iPad app by OnLive, Inc., which gives users full access to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. All you need to do is sign up for a free OnLive account and you get 2GB of free cloud space to store/access the spreadsheets, presentations, and Word documents that you created on your iPad. To access them on the computer, just log in to your OnLive account from their website. Sounds great, right? Not so fast. You won’t be able to open .ppt, .doc, or .xls files attached in emails, nor will you be able to edit and generate content quickly without a keyboard accessory. But these cons I’d classify as inconveniences aren’t what we need to worry about…

The worst part about this great app is having to surrender the security of sensitive/private information. Any organization looking to keep their documents in-house should be wary of the risks that come with loading a file to a location external to their network. Wouldn’t it be great if this app allowed users to keep their files local? Empowered by document management, today’s IT administrators can control the flow of attachments transferred across all mobile devices in their network by giving their employees a secure means to share. If this OnLive app enabled employees to work within these bounds, now that would make a more compelling case for switching from PC to tablet (and staying there).

What factors are playing in to your decision to stick with a computer versus a tablet (or vice-versa)? Do you agree that quality apps shaped from the influence of computer programs will ensure this transition comes to fruition? Are limitations–such as lack of security or control over your documents–holding you back?

This past week Wyse announced a PocketCloud upgrade for both the Android and iPhone, a move that grabbed loads of user traction. The USP of the PocketCloud app is ‘Multi-device search’: users can access and search for documents or files on different devices or remote computers.  Unlike Microsoft’s SkyDrive offering, PocketCloud does not provide an upload, access, and share interface. Rather, it gives users a way to locate and view folders and their contents in the Cloud.

Since hearing about the upgrade, I’ve tried it out on my Android phone myself. The app was easy to install and use. The UI is intuitive and allowed me to multitask across different applications.

A standard feature offering allows you to connect to your remote machine using a RDP, VNC or Auto Discovery mode. It is mandatory for users to have the PocketCloud Windows Companion or Mac Companion installed on the remote machine. You may download the appropriate agent for your remote machine here.

I connected to my work machine using the Auto Discovery setup (i.e., signing in with your Gmail credentials). The Wyse PocketCloud installation finished in couple of minutes and a computer ID was generated for my machine in the PocketCloud. I then launched the PocketCloud app on my Android and signed in to access my folders (in auto discovery mode). The Touch Pointer tool was fun, easy to use and allowed good control of the screen.  I selected my machine ID and could easily access, browse and edit my files, images and folders with a minimal lag. (If required, one may also disable access to specific folders and files.)

IT administrators may remotely manage their servers, from their smartphones or tablets, from multiple locations through an RDP or VNC connection.  If they wish to connect to multiple computers from their smart devices, they may upgrade to PocketCloud Pro.

While the PocketCloud works like a charm for me, what has been your experience? Do you have any tips to share?

Should employees be allowed to bring their personal handheld devices to work?

The above question is no longer relevant in today’s time. With the kind of flexibility and social interaction smartphones and tablets provide, these Swiss army-style devices are irresistible. Hence, can be found everywhere you turn. This trend has just begun!

As employees continue to enjoy the benefits of these devices, IT administrators are wrestling with the challenges posed by the dynamic mobile ecosystem. While adopting an MDM solution is a good start for tackling these challenges, IT administrators do have their mobile device management pain points.

So what are these pain points? And how can we work them out?

Pain point #1: The BYOD (bring-your-own-device) Trend

Although the industry experts and analysts are beating the drum about this new trend that enterprises must adopt, some enterprises perceive this trend as a pain point due to security and support concerns.

So how can you do it the right way? Today’s mobile worker owns more than one mobile device and uses his different devices to access corporate information. Senior management and the IT department must encourage and educate their employees on the benefits of enrolling all their mobile devices (personal and corporate devices) into the corporate mobile device management plan. This is the first and the most important aspect of managing corporate mobile assets and lays the basic foundation for implementing mobile data security. 

Pain point #2: Implementing Mobile Device Security Policies

As workers use their mobile devices at work, do you see a decline in productivity due to excessive use of social media applications? Also, do you fear the leakage of sensitive corporate data?

So how can you control the situation? IT administrators must carefully design mobile device security policies to be in the best interests of both the parties – the mobile workforce and the company.  While designing mobile device security policies, it is nice to:

- Have simple, clear and easy mobile device policies that allow IT administrators to monitor and manage the situation proactively
- Have different policies for different groups (it is recommended to involve the user community and get their feedback while designing the mobile security policies)
- Implement policies that have wide user adoption (the policies must allow employees to be productive while empowering IT admins to intervene in critical situations)

- Restricting use of certain social media applications, camera, Bluetooth, music players
- Defining types of documents that can be uploaded to the cloud to preserve data integrity
- Enforcing the use of VPNs for accessing corporate resources on public wireless networks or home networks
- Defining auto quarantine actions for lost, stolen or damaged devices (IT administrators can make sure that only corporate information is wiped and the user’s personal information is not touched or wiped without consent)

Pain point #3: Sandboxing Enterprise Applications

Mobile devices are typically used by sales or senior management, folks who are less tolerant to downtime time when trying to access mobile email or other corporate resources.

We highly recommend that you sandbox your corporate mobile applications and use an Enterprise App Catalog to effectively deploy, monitor and manage your enterprise applications across different devices.

Pain point #4: A Dynamic Ecosystem

The mobile market is bombarded with new device vendors, device releases and updates. IT administrators are often faced with the question of which operating systems to support and how to maintain a mobile device management platform that is robust and scalable enough to accommodate the new updates and a large number of employee-owned devices.

So what is the right way? It is important for IT administrators to decide which operating systems they must support. If choosing an MDM solution for the first time, it is wise to pick a cloud-based one. Using a cloud-based MDM solution allows businesses to lower their upfront infrastructure and training costs plus an exploitation of cloud storage benefits.

If you are familiar with these pain points, we don’t mean to rub it in; we know your pain! Heed our advice and it will feel much less like salt on the wounds…more so a bandaid & stamp of approval to get back in business. Do you think this advice will help you tackle your device management issues? Share with us your experiences.

by Pragati Jain, Fiberlink

Smartphones, no doubt, are the current buzz of the technology market. No technology in history has been so fiercely adopted and has evolved at such an aggressive pace. These devices have something to offer every industry and are even favorites of our children!

A recent consumer survey by JD Power and Associates indicates that Apple continues to be the leader in understanding and delivering what the consumer needs, followed by HTC and Samsung. The survey indicates that smartphone owners are looking for devices that are simple in design, ergonomically pleasing, lightweight, intuitive, and packed with advanced technological features and applications for better user satisfaction.

As these devices continue to influence our lifestyle, we take a look at smartphone features that vendors much incorporate to impress the average consumer. Here is my 2012 smartphone feature wishlist:

1. Intelligent voice control: Voice technology has all of a sudden become a great deal for many smartphone owners and vendors. Many industry experts say that Siri’s voice technology, from Nuance Technologies, is quite stellar compared to Vlingo on Android.  Nuance has another product, Dragon On!, for its iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 users (who can’t get their hands on Siri unless they upgrade their hardware). Google has already added voice search to Google Maps to help drivers retrieve directions. Amazon recently acquired Yap, a voice-to-text company, to develop Siri’s competitor for Kindle. Many hardware vendors are pushing their software limits to develop cool voice-based features for differentiating themselves in the mobile market. No doubt, mobile voice technology is the next game changer technology of the mobile industry. Innovative, intelligent and semantic mobile voice control is the next feature to look out in your smartphone in 2012.
2. LTE technology for higher data rates: JD Power and Associates’ consumer survey strongly reflects that users had a more satisfying mobile browsing experience on 4G networks than 3G networks. An LTE connection empowers users to run bandwidth-consuming applications like mobile TV, and to conduct video calls and conference calls of high call quality and reliability. As the LTE services gain momentum, smartphone vendors must consider techniques for optimizing the smartphone battery performance on 4G networks. AT&T and Verizon have already introduced their LTE services for their users. However, AT&T has its LTE network available only across 9 major US cities – Boston, Baltimore, Athens, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. In 2012, let us hope that the LTE offering is one of the prime offerings of our wireless vendors across many of the US cities.
   
3. Near Field Communication (NFC): Today we use our smartphones for practically everything – banking, socializing, doing businesses, entertainment, etc. I don’t mind tagging this device as our ‘Swiss Army Tool’. NFC technology lets users do upfront payments at an NFC kiosk using their smart device. In 2012, as more and more carriers adopt this technology, users can choose to leave their wallet at home and use this feature for making payments.
   
4. Smartphone data cloud storage: The Cloud has been always been popular, and it’s myriad ‘as- a- service offerings’ have helped businesses improve their ROI and broaden their business horizons. Recently, Apple was one of the first smartphone vendors to allow its users to store their data in the cloud. Storing their data in the cloud not only provides users more space to store their data but also enables users to access their data at anytime and anyplace. In 2012, we must see more offerings for smartphone owners to store, manage and monitor their data in the cloud.
   
5. Smartphone optics with more image processing power and features: As of now, one cannot complain about the features packed in our smartphone camera – autofocus, flash, red eye correction, and zoom. As the survey highlights, users with 5 megapixel camera were as satisfied with users using 8 megapixel camera. However, as the technology progresses, the bar also raises. Ideally, it would be nice to have smartphone optics that are as good as our point and shoot camera.
   
6. Feature intensive phones at low price: The smartphone market is growing, and many small and big companies are launching their products with their ‘cut out’ features to lure the consumers. In Oct., Microsoft made its debut in the game with its flagship product – Windows 7.5 Mango update (and it has received great user reviews.)  Apple, Samsung, HTC, Motorola are already the prime smartphone players in 2011. While Android phones are considered to be the cheapest, Apple has already offered the iPhone 3G at a two-year free contract. In 2012, I am looking forward to smartphones with the right blend of smartphone design, technology, simplicity, and are yet easy on the pocketbook. Hmmm, are you keeping an eye on any smartphone vendor in particular?
   
7. Longer battery life and more processing power: You can never get enough of some things; ‘long battery life and more processing power’ is among them. I hope our futuristic smartphones are packed with more battery and processing power. Ideally, it is nice to have a combination of both that will keep our smartphones awake for 24 hrs at a stretch (while we continue to use them for playing games, accessing applications and simultaneously take calls for long hours.)

Do your employees use smartphones at work? Do your employees access business resources from their devices with or without permission? Does your staff use social media services like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to do business or for recruiting talent? If the answer to any of the above questions is Yes, your organization is hit by the “Consumerization of IT” trend.

So, do you have visibility into all the mobile activity happening under your eye? Is the data on your mobile work force also adequately monitored and controlled?

As the consumerization of IT and BYOD trend gain momentum, there can be serious enterprise security implications if the growing trend is not embraced in the right way. Thus, as employees bring in their devices to enhance their productivity, businesses must have enough governance in place to protect their data.

As the mobile ecosystem continues to dynamically grow, mobile device management (MDM) is becoming quite a task for the IT department.  Here is a quick look at the must-haves in your IT strategy to embrace the BYOD trend correctly.

1. Identify a list of supported, partially supported and not supported devices. It is nice to even have a list of blacklisted and whitelisted mobile applications that can reside on a user device. IT administrators may also recommend different applications, device types and data plans for different teams. Employees must be well educated on best practices for smartphone use, company policies, SLAs, and the implications of violating them.
2. Implement different mobile device security policies for different device types and teams. Device policies must be enforced for all devices, and relevant auto-quarantine actions must be triggered for incompliant devices. Here is a consolidated list of must-have mobile device security parameters and policies for enterprises of all segments.
3. Owning an Enterprise App Store for efficient Mobile Application Management (MAM) is a realistic model for easy, safe and secured distribution, deployment and monitoring of applications across different devices. IT administrators must ensure that applications must access business resources over a secured tunnel to prevent any malware infestations or data leakages. Read this whitepaper to explore the benefits of owning an EAS.
4. A single device management console to monitor your assets at anytime and at any place in a centralized manner. Also, the MDM platform must provide cross-platform device support for an array of smartphone operating systems, and be robust enough to handle the vendor updates. You may take a free evaluation of the MaaS360 MDM solution to experience how you can view, monitor and manage your mobile resources in a controlled manner.
5. Maintain end-to-end visibility and security of IT assets (both on and off the premises). Embracing a cloud-based MDM solution allows you to track your devices at anytime and anyplace. It harnesses the power of the Cloud, is a cost-effective solution and rapidly decreases your on-boarding time. Read this IDC analyst report to further understand how organizations can tame the consumerization of IT trend using a Cloud-based MDM solution.

An MDM solution is not a holistic solution for managing your devices. It must be complimented by different IT tools for efficient device management. MaaS360 recommends pairing your MDM solution with a Mobile Expense Management solution, a Mobile Application Management solution and a Mobile Encrypted Messaging solution for securing and managing your devices, applications and corporate expenses.

So is your organization all ready to put an end to its device management crises? Are there any device management concerns your organization has?

Check out what the industry experts have to say about the MaaS360 solution.

If enterprise IT can learn anything from an old fairy tale, it’s that their house will be blown down when they don’t prepare for the danger at their door. The majority (~87%) of poll respondents from a 1,200-person Deloitte Webcast have acknowledged the threat of rogue devices–the big bad wolf–making this fairy tale applicable to a real life situation. The poll results can further be related to the tale when considering how enterprise IT has prepared for the threat of these rogue devices:

Tim Wilson of Dark Reading reports “40% of respondents don’t know whether their organizations have strategies, policies, proceedures, or technology controls in place to effectively enforce mobile security”

This percentage of IT and business executives are choosing to build their house from straw, and as a result are increasing their risk of a mobile security breach to their organization. We all know from the story that taking extra time to build a house of sticks still results in a house being blown down. Now is not the time to wait around to see what happens; set up a brick and mortar umbrella for your mobile-workforce before the big bad wolf comes knocking at your door.

Have you taken precaution? Let us know what you’re doing to prepare. If you could use a good starting point, learn how to start managing your smartphones and tablets in 5 minutes.

Results from the latest MDM report by InformationWeek demonstrate the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) trend has grown considerably in the past year. If the next report’s results are consistent with the past two, BYOD will continue growing until it is a complete normality in the enterprise. This year’s survey respondents (323 technology professionals from 50+ person business environments) added a considerable margin to the already-high percentages from last year’s survey responses that indicated BYOD acceptance, implementation, and/or future planning were a part of their IT strategy.

Here are some of the major takeaways from the report:

✔ 65% of those surveyed expect/predict an increase in the percent of employee-owned smart phones & tablets accessing business resources

✔ 75% are willing to spend either the current level or more than what is already being spent on adoption or expansion of an MDM platform

✔ 35% said in the short term (the next 24 months) the role of smart phones as a productive resource for business-persons will increase significantly from their role at present

✔ Last year, 36% of respondents felt tablets would play a critical role for business productivity at their company in the next 24 months–this year’s percentage rose to 79% (a 43% increase!)

✔ The percentage of respondents who reported employees at their company use their own devices at work rose by 11%

✔ 15% fewer respondents deemed their IT department responsible for providing smart phones, tablets, and carriers

These survey results show BYOD is here to stay in a big way; learn how you can become a part of the progressive pack and plan, implement, and support an effective BYOD program in your workplace. What do you think about the BYOD trend?  Tell us what you think in the comments below.

It’s a bird!  It’s a plane!  It’s the IT guy! 

Sarcasm?  Perhaps a little.  But if there was ever a day that those in IT could called, “super hero” – it’s today.  With budgets being cut left and right, hackers around every corner, and users downloading dangerous software, there is no lack of villains to fight off.  But with restrictions that prevent IT departments from spending on anything new, many of my customers feel like they have no power to make a difference.

By take some nods from some of our favorite super heroes, though, they might find that secret weapon to save the day:

X-Ray Vision, Superman – Imagine if you could see what all your users are doing, whether they’re using the laptop you gave them for working at home, how often they log on with their 3G card, what software they haven’t used in ages.  Let’s say last year you bought 3000 seats of a given software.  Now, with your x-ray vision, you see that its only actually being used on 2436 laptops.  That’s over 500 seats you don’t need.  So this year, you stop paying for them.  Talk about saving the day!

Controlling the Weather, Storm from X-Men – What if you could control the IT environment for your workers around the world?  If they were using incompliant software, you could send in a drought and shut them down before you face fines.  If they got a virus, you could send in a flood of anti-virus software and wash it out before they spread it through the corporate network and shut you down for days.  Stopping villains from causing harm is one of the best super hero traits.

Cool Gadgets, Batman – Since you’re not able to buy new technology, why not just try some out for free?  With the popularization of cloud computing, there are a lot of new products that are offering trials for no cost that could actually help you get the power to see things like Superman and control things like Storm.  And when the ban on spending has finally been lifted, you’re the guy who is going to have all the info on the new must-have.

Let’s face it – we all want to be super heroes.  And since a recession is terrible thing to waste, the time is now to uncover your super powers.