I N M Y W O R D S by Scott Perry


DEALING WITH MOBILITY


I


n the last five years, organizations have undergone a dramatic change as a re- sult of the growth of the mobile worker. According to a 2011 Forrester report on the mobile workforce 57 per cent of cor- porate employees are now mobile. How- ever, the nature of these mobile workers varies dramatically, from the five per cent who are either home-based, always on the road, or a combination of the two, to the 11 per cent who are part-time telecommuters, splitting their time be- tween the office and home.


In line with this changing work pattern, organizations are challenged to ensure they can meet the needs of these workers to be connected to information and each other, regardless of their location or the time. And increasingly, the way to provide this access is being set by the individual, for more than 50 per cent of enterprises today allow personal smartphones to ac- cess company resources. Furthermore, a 2010 Gartner report on securing corpo- rate data reported that 75 per cent of their client CIOs found that enterprise users were connecting their iPhones, iPods or iPads to the enterprise network with or without permission.


From a security perspective, this changing mobile environment is having a dramatic effect on organizations, particu- larly their IT departments. These groups are confronted with a myriad of mobile risks, from lost or stolen devices, to mali- cious software, to breaches of the mobile device itself, to a lack of effective network security. They also have to maintain con- trol over platforms that are constantly changing, and users who want increased flexibility in the way they work – behav- iour that is inconsistent with an organiza- tion’s security policy.


As technology evolves to bring new applications and services to enable the mobile worker, these security considera-


26 SECURITY MATTERS • WINTER 2011


THESE CLOUD APPLICATIONS CAN BE LEVERAGED BY REMOTE OR MOBILE EMPLOYEES, AND IN MANY CASES ACCESSED FROM PDAS OR SMARTPHONES.


tions are growing and becoming more complex. Smartphones, PDAs and portable storage devices are ideal for car- rying or accessing corporate data, much of which could be sensitive. But the highly portable nature of these devices means they can be easily lost or stolen, often referred to as the “devices walk syndrome.” Gartner recently reported that by 2016, 60 per cent of enterprises will have suffered “material loss of sensi- tive corporate data via mobile devices.” While mobile security is often dis- cussed in terms of securing popular mo- bile devices, it actually encompasses a much broader range of elements that in- cludes applications and data, as well the user’s behaviour itself – essentially secu- rity over those things that enable a mo- bile workforce.


Then there is the evolution of cloud- based services that offer opportunities for flexibility and cost-savings for organiza- tions, and provide services that would traditionally have required applications and infrastructure onsite. These cloud applications can be leveraged by remote or mobile employees, and in many cases accessed from PDAs or smartphones. But as Forrester noted in a recent report, “half of the organizations that elect not to adopt cloud computing cite security as the reason.” Also, other applications that promise flexibility for mobile workers and potential cost savings, such as file sharing or virtualization software, raise similar security concerns relating to how data is accessed and protected, and in


AS MORE PEOPLE UTILIZE MOBILE DEVICES TO STORE AND TRANSPORT DATA, COMPANIES ARE CAUGHT IN A DILEMMA BETWEEN THE CONVENIENCE AND FLEXIBILITY OF SUCH TECHNOLOGY AND THE SECURITY CONCERNS THEY REPRESENT


some cases may require considerable in- frastructure.


But as technology evolves and brings new applications and services to enable the mobile worker, it also presents op- portunities to address some of the asso- ciated security concerns through technologies like encryption, authentica- tion and mobile device management. There is no doubt that technology is evolving in areas that have the potential to provide even greater flexibility for mobile users, and at the same time address many corporate security concerns. As an example, the ability to have one’s entire workspace that can be booted directly from a secure portable storage device that is completely encrypted, provides local authentication and can be isolated from another machine’s operating system. This approach enables users to access their entire electronic work environment from any computing platform regardless of its location, while protecting data and the computer; in this way they don’t need to be encumbered with having to carry a laptop. It is clear that recent technology trends around enterprise mobility are a dual- edged sword: on one side, presenting new applications and services that offer convenience and flexibility for the mobile workers, while on the other side, bringing heightened security concerns. However, with greater awareness of these issues, organizations can also turn to proven technology to address these concerns and enable their mobile workforce.


Scott Perry is the senior product marketing manager at Imation Mobile Security Group (www.imation.com), which offers a port- folio of trusted FIPS-validated portable storage devices, digital identity products, secure portable computing, and both cloud-based and on-premises secure de- vice management software solutions.


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