Securing mobile devices in the business environment

Overview

As the world becomes more interconnected, integrated and intelligent, mobile devices are playing an ever-increasing role in changing the way people live, work and communicate. But it is not just happening in personal life: Smartphones and tablets are also being rapidly adopted by enterprises as new work tools, joining existing laptops and desktops.

The use of mobile devices for business has experienced an explosive growth in the past few years and will only accelerate in the near future. And while the BlackBerry has been the de facto mobile device for business for many years, the availability of other smartphones and tablets with broader consumer appeal, such as iPhone and Android devices, is fundamentally changing the game. Employees are now bringing their own mobile devices to the workplace and asking companies to support them. These new devices offer improved hardware performance, a more robust platform feature set and increased communication bandwidth, expanding their capabilities beyond voice and email. As a result, however, this increased access to enterprise systems can also bring an increased security risk to the organisation.