How To Protect BYOD Employers From Data Risks

There is no doubt mobile devices – especially those that use the Android platform – are being hacked, especially with so many subscribers using them to make purchases, and to transfer and share large (and sometimes sensitive) files. With more enterprises allowing workers to use their own smartphones, laptops and tablets for work, data hijacking is a major concern.

To help enterprises mitigate data and network risks, today Symantec Corp. unveiled its Symantec Mobile Security Assessment Suite, a set of services it says helps enterprises evaluate their mobile security postures and develop defenses against mobile threats and vulnerabilities. The new suite also provides employers with strategic and tactical recommendations for the secure deployment of mobile devices and applications.

“When it comes to implementing mobile technology, enterprises are being thrown into the fire,” said Clint Sand, senior director of the Security Business Practice at Symantec. “Enterprises know that security is the main impediment for broader adoption of mobility, but with all the changes in operating systems and applications, IT managers are unclear on how to comprehensively address the security challenges. We want to help these organizations with an assessment of their security posture and make recommendations on the best ways to embrace ‘bring your own device (BYOD).’”

Adds Franklin Witter, senior principal security strategist at Symantec, “It takes a combination of policies, standards, procedures and user education to prevent bad things from happening to good people.”

As such, the Symantec Mobile Security Assessment Suite uses a solution-oriented approach based on the company’s own Mobile Security Framework. It consists of two modules; one for holistic assessment of enterprise mobile security and one specifically focused on mobile application security:

>> Symantec Mobile Security Assessments evaluates the level of risk inherent in the enterprise use of such mobile computing devices as the Apple iPhone, iPad or Android phones and tablets. The assessment provides an understanding of present or anticipated exposure to information security risk likely to result from gaps within the information security programs, policies and processes, based on mobile-device use cases and available security controls.

>> Symantec Mobile App Security Assessments evaluates the security of an organization’s custom mobile applications against best-practice criteria for mobile app security. By simulating real-world device operating-system and application-level attacks, the tests provide insight into the ability of an organization’s mobile apps to resist attacks from unauthorized users and to help prevent misuse by valid users.

After completing its assessments, Symantec delivers a written report to the enterprise that includes an executive summary showing the high-level analysis and findings, a scorecard illustrating the organization’s mobile security readiness, detailed findings and recommendations, and prioritized action plans for closing any gaps that may exist. Enterprises can use this final report to formalize their mobile strategies and deployment plans around mobile-device management, mobile-data loss prevention, mobile encryption, mobile anti-virus and mobile authentication.

The suite is available immediately from Symantec.