Mobile Device Management – Denial is not a Strategy

Still think smartphones are a fad? Are you convinced that tablets have just about run their course? Are you of the opinion that people shouldn’t be doing work wherever they go, anyway? Do you see yourself as a lone crusader for LYOD (leave your own device)?

“Denial ‘aint just a river in Egypt” – said many

Denial is also not going to protect your business from the reality that people are now using mobile devices more than ever, and in ways not envisioned as recently as a year ago. Personal device ownership and usage in the enterprise is still growing rapidly, and more businesses than ever before are facing the challenge of how to fully provision, manage and secure mobile devices in their corporate environments.

Desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets are coming together and organizations need a single platform to manage every device, both personal and corporate owned. So what’s slowing businesses down? It’s the exercise of putting in place an IT strategy for management and operation. While it’s understandable that IT would see it as an overwhelming task, it doesn’t have to be. With the right solution it really isn’t difficult at all to combine security with rapid enrollment.

Here are 11 best practices for Mobile Device Management (MDM).

1. Have a Policy That’s Realistic

This means that you acknowledge the following two requirements:

You have to support multiple device platforms in a single window
You need to allow personal devices along with corporate owned ones

2. Take Stock Using a Multi-Platform Reporting and Inventory Tool – We recommend doing this ASAP!

Provides detailed visibility into what is out there and who it belongs to.
Works for help desk troubleshooting.
Is accessible outside of IT – for instance, HR should have read-only access during exit interviews. (It’s not uncommon to uncover terminated employees with corporate mobile devices that are still functioning. Now you see why this is an urgent one.)
Has strong application inventory and search capabilities, because those will become increasingly more important.

3. Enforce Basic Security: Password, Encryption, and Remote Wipe

Require a strong password.
Set up devices to automatically lock after a specified period of inactivity.
Be able to remotely wipe devices after a certain number of failed login attempts, or if devices are reported lost.
Enforce local data encryption.

4. Make Bluetooth Hidden or Non-Discoverable

This is tricky in practice. Users will need to put it into discover mode to pair with their car or new headset, for instance, but your policy must require them to turn it back to non-discoverable when they’re finished with that one-time action to be qualified to have the device for corporate use.

5. Start Planning for a Single Console, MultiPlatform MDM Solution

Your MDM platform should also be able to manage PC/Mac form factor and OS devices. This will cut down on infrastructure costs, improve operational efficiency, and create a single user view into devices and data for operations and security.
Should consolidate both your existing BlackBerry solution and your multi-platform MDM platform.
Consider web- or cloud-based MDM services.
Go the agent route with caution – server-side management controls might be better in the long run.

6. Include Your Mobile Device Inventory and Policy Status in Operations Reviews

Report on and discuss your mobile device inventory and policy status in your IT operations reviews. Be sure to include personal devices. It’s a good way to gain exposure to the benefits for your organization and future resource needs. Your inventory and reporting tool should make this simple.

NOTE: The 6 best practices above should meet most organizations’ needs. For instance, the healthcare industry has some of the most stringent security and privacy regulations as dictated by the HIPAA Act and HITECH. But those regulations only require, in practice, encrypting your data and having the ability to destroy the data on a lost device. The practices above cover that and more.

Best practices 7-9, below, are advanced best practices to consider once the foundation has been laid.

Best practices 10 – 11 are for rare organizations with highly sensitive and classified information.

7. Enable Cost Management for Network Usage

Multi-national businesses need to be able to monitor and limit international data roaming, since those costs can quickly reach thousands of dollars per trip.

8. Manage Application Restrictions and Your Own App Store™

Certain organizations or industries may have the need to restrict the type of application allowed on a corporate approved device. Businesses can also consider setting up their own enterprise app stores to restrict the set and to ease the delivery of applications to mobile devices.

9. Provide a Backup & Recovery Service

If you have a user segment that has critical and unique data, beyond email, you may want to consider using a backup and recovery solution. This is not critical for iPhone users, since iTunes has taken care of this, or for BlackBerry users, but Android smartphones might require this additional functionality.

10. Limit Data Transfers, and Separate Corporate and Personal Information

Some businesses, with highly sensitive data, find it valuable to restrict downloading attachments or prevent the copying of data to removable media. Implementing these solutions can be very difficult, and the data classification exercise is almost unmanageable. An alternative is to create separate virtual containers for business and personal data and applications.

11. Install Firewall, Anti-Virus and Intrusion Prevention Solutions

This is a priority for businesses where “good enough,” just isn’t. The majority of businesses will find effective applications in the market that apply these PC-like approaches to device security. Home WiFi access does raise some concerns that devices are not always protected by carrier networks, but for the time being, mobile devices enjoy the same company as Macintosh and Linux platforms and have the benefit of much less complexity as the attack-prone Windows PCs.

It’s time to embrace mobile devices in your environment. They’re here to stay. Take the proper steps to secure, manage, and monitor any corporate- or employee-owned mobile device that accesses business critical data.

Schedule a consultation to learn how Flagship and IBM’s MaaS360 solution can enable your IT to manage laptops, desktops and smartphones in one window, one system.

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