Risks, solutions in mobile gateway

With increasing adoption of Smartphones, both with personal devices and enterprise usage , the risk and threats of managing the data is also rising for the enterprises. While there are several economic benefits that the industry can receive with the increasing adoption, operators like BlackBerry are concerned about the risks and threats in Mobile deployments. A study by BlackBerry reveals that there is a gap between the awareness and understanding of the risks of mobile deployments, and the steps being taken to mitigate them.

According to the survey, 66 percent of those surveyed acknowledge they find it difficult to keep up with current and emerging mobile threats, while 70 percent of the same respondents say they know they are more tolerant of risk than they should be with their enterprise mobility. This increases to 76 percent in BYOD environments.
The survey found that more than two-thirds believe that mobile devices are the weakest link in their enterprise security framework. However, only 35 percent of executives, risk compliance officers and IT managers within large organizations are very confident that their organization’s data assets are fully protected from unauthorized access via mobile devices.

Respondents indicated that they have been too lax in assessing and guarding against risks such as lost or stolen devices, unapproved apps and cloud services, as well as inadequate separation of work and personal use of devices. Consequences of mishandling these issues could lead to immeasurable reputational damage, significant financial penalties and loss of revenue through the loss of trade secrets, or misappropriated customer data. These threats are so critical that 75 percent of those surveyed believe that their organization’s GRC groups should be more involved in developing enterprise mobility strategy.

“Deloitte’s clients face a wide range of complex issues when assessing the adoption of new technology. From Deloitte’s own research, we know that Digital Risk and in particular mobile technologies are of growing concern,” said Kieran Norton, Principal, Security & Privacy, Deloitte & Touche LLP. “As the technical capabilities of connected devices increase exponentially, so do the threats to devices, data and infrastructure as well as wider risks around issues such as regulatory compliance and operational support. While clients recognize the potential upside of mobile driven innovation, at this time we still see many companies grappling with the implications of mobile technologies and finding the ‘sweet spot’ where new business opportunities are exploited while managing risk and balancing the tradeoff between control and user experience.”

“It’s startlingly clear that mobile technology has transformed daily business faster than most businesses have been able to adapt,” said John Sims, President of Global Enterprise Services, BlackBerry. “Leaders at all levels of organizations around the world are realizing the very real gaps that exist in their technology infrastructure – and the potentially devastating consequences of a breach. As workforces become ever more mobile, BlackBerry leads the industry in developing solutions that provide flexibility without sacrificing security.”

Additional mobile security trends emerging from survey respondents and their organizations included:

Increasing need for Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM). Seventy-six percent of study participants said the risk of legal liability and costly lawsuits will increase without concerted efforts to adopt comprehensive enterprise mobility management strategies.
61 percent say their organization miscalculates or underestimates risk by focusing on the device rather than the entire mobility landscape.
The head of internal audit at a professional services company interviewed for the study said: “Attitudes are changing with regard to work and where you do it. The danger is that as the behavior changes and we use more mobile technologies, the controls do not keep up.”
Reconsideration of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. Fifty-seven percent said that they would consider curtailing policies that allow employees to use their personal mobile devices at work (BYOD) in favor of more secure end-to-end solutions such as corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE).
77 percent reported that it is increasingly difficult to balance the needs of the business and those of the end user when it comes to mobility.

Mobility partners must provide secure, future-ready solutions. Sixty-nine percent said their methods for choosing mobility vendors need to be updated to reflect the current risk and mobility landscape.
73 percent said they want providers to have security credentials and certifications when determining how best to implement EMM solutions.
58 percent want their partners to have a clear mobility roadmap and solutions that adapt to changing technologies.

Solutions to combat risks

Understanding the unique challenges of maintaining data sovereignty in an era of cloud, Mobiliya Shoonya – a comprehensive enterprise solution for Extensible Device Management is enterprise grade Mobile Device Management server for Android & iOS Devices. It ensures the security of sensitive company data, enforces compliance with corporate MDM policies and provides simple access to enterprise apps and services for employees.

Mobiliya Shoonya can be customized to suit a variety of industry specific segments and verticals. The solution’s comprehensive features include remote device management to manage devices, enforce enterprise policies and remotely lock, wipe or reset any device; advanced security that facilitates easy deployment in governmental and restricted environments; device provisioning to assist administrators in distributing apps, files, operating system upgrades and settings for all enterprise devices; a multi-platform web console to restrict and manage multiple devices; and easy one click on-boarding that allows new users to the enterprise environment.

Krish Kupathil, CEO of Mobiliya says ‘We are very excited to announce the launch of Mobiliya Shoonya, an Indian MDM solution, as one of the solutions offered by Mobiliya to meet the needs of the rapidly growing mobile workforce. A lot of challenges are faced by Indian Government & private enterprise due to the services being managed from offshore datacenters with different set of policies & environment, making it accessible to foreign third parties. We have embarked on this path to ensure Indian MDM address these concerns. Mobiliya Shoonya is a product made for Indian organizations with data centers within India.’

Some of the other ways to counter security threats due to enterprise mobility that need active company participation should be:

Companies should adopt good mobile policies as a binding contract that each user should sign. The policies should discuss about the wide range of company data used by the employees, data ownership issues, protocols for lost and stolen devices, and also include rules regarding downloading of data, limiting network access etc.
Passwords play a crucial role and place security in the hands of users. Users need to create effective passwords so that the data is not stolen easily. They can counteract a range of external threats. So it is always advisable to keep a password which has number, symbols and letters as it is more challenging to crack this type of password. One should have password of more than 8 characters with combinations.
It is very necessary to educate and train the mobile users to combat any threat. This Training can involve exams, online tests, ppt presentations that show lists of security scenarios and acceptable responses.
Enterprises need to always keep the employees updates with the latest threats and the latest developments in security to ensure maximum security.