Making mobiles less ‘elusive’ in the corporate network

Today we’ll talk a bit more about how our software protects businesses and helps their IT security staff. Let’s take a look at those “elusive” mobile devices.

Smartphones and tablets help workaholics a lot. They now work everywhere: at the office, at home, in a traffic jam, or on vacation. The problem is that besides the working files, they also have personal data and apps on the same devices, installed from unknown sources. That’s a data leak in the making.

Making mobiles less ‘elusive’ in the corporate network #protectmybiz

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In larger enterprises where the employees use company-provided mobile devices, it’s up to the company to ensure their security. And thus smartphones become an IT security staff’s headache simply because there are lots of ways sensitive data may leak. How do you avoid data leaks if the person loses their phone? How do you conceal corporate e-mail and working files from outsiders? How do you make sure the employee only opens safe sites in their browser? What do you do if someone has “borrowed” the phone and there’s no way to retrieve it?

Kaspersky Lab has developed a solution based on Kaspersky Security Center, which makes IT staff’s tasks lot easier.

All you need to do is:

• Install Kaspersky Security Center – a single unified management console that makes it easier to manage and secure all your endpoints
• Deploy the mobile management package
• Set up the security policy required by the business

Now let’s go.

First, we install the mobile antivirus. There’s no other way given how much mobile malware is out there: In Q3 alone there were 323,374 new mobile malware examples.

Then we set up the remote management that allows the admin to deploy the phone book, lock down the device if it is lost, filter out the web-content, or delete the data.

Next, we forbid the installation or use of apps which aren’t approved by the security settings. This is necessary so that the financial report isn’t getting out to the cloud and Angry Birds aren’t preventing the users from reading e-mails in time.

In Q3 alone there were 323,374 new mobile #malware examples

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Then we encrypt the mail client and request the password every time the control is taken over. The e-mails aren’t visible even from the file manager.

And in order for Santa admin to know who has been a good boy/girl this year and who hasn’t, we’re setting up the alerts if something violates security policies.

It’s okay now. We’ve limited and secured employees’ web-surfing. If the device is lost, the data will be erased. Crooks may bang their heads against the wall we’ve raised, but they have no chance of getting through.

And if some unprincipled colleagues would like to get away with the data, they’re going to fail.

In fact, the users themselves may dislike all of this. So it’s better to explain what is it all about ahead of time, so that there are no surprises for employees.

After all, only pre-established and unchangeable rules of the game are good enough, are they not?