Enterprises grappling with the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend have moved from talking about "if" they should allow employees to use their personal devices at work, to "how" these personal devices can be managed while still protecting data. Knowing which security features are standard on each smartphone operating system is a step in the right direction for IT organizations.
BYOD environments require heightened security on all the available platforms in smartphones and other devices. For IT departments, this means evaluating each mobile operating system, and keeping up to date on changes in Apple's iOS, Google Android, and Microsoft's Windows Phone platforms.
IT organizations have limited scope to monitor employee-owned devices, often relying on the built-in security features on the devices to prevent data from accidentally going public.
Smartphones, tablets, and other devices have some built-in security measures, such as data encryption and other technologies that can help find lost or stolen devices. Many of these features are preloaded to protect sensitive data stored on the device, but the question remains: Are these features robust enough to protect the data?
Data security comes down to each organization's willingness to invest in -- or have a budget allocated for -- new security solutions such as EMS, MDM, and others.
However, investing heavily in one or more of these solutions does not guarantee that employees will volunteer to enroll their devices to be monitored by an organization, or encourage workers to share private information such as current location. On the following pages we look at the three major employee-owned device platforms -- Android, iOS, and Windows -- to help you ascertain what they offer in out-of-the-box security.
No comments:
Post a Comment