US watchdogs probe mobile security

The US authorities are to investigate the security of mobile devices, and in particular the way in which software updates are distributed.

The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission are looking to “better understand, and ultimately to improve” practices. To this end, letters have been sent to operators asking about procedures for reviewing and releasing updates, and to eight device makers about how patches are issued to address vulnerabilities.

“There have recently been a growing number of vulnerabilities associated with mobile operating systems that threaten the security and integrity of a user’s device, including ‘Stagefright’ in the Android operating system, which may affect almost one billion Android devices globally”, a statement said.

Getting Serious About Mobile Security

Technologies like biometric authentication and DLP are making enterprise mobility more secure. Are mobile UC and mobile-first team collaboration apps keeping pace?

One of my longtime favorite observations about UC and mobility is that everyone in the UC space talks about mobility, but nobody in the mobile business talks about UC. The focus there instead is on security, which happens to be an area of ongoing concern among those of us watching activities around mobile UC and the rise of mobile-first team collaboration apps.

It might seem that the mobile security story broke onto the scene with the advent of BYOD and the trend of allowing personally owned devices to access corporate systems. This trend, however, only intensified what was already a serious information security concern. On top of traditional worries, an organization's attack surface increased exponentially as it rolled out BYOD and had corporate data residing on so many easy to lose or steal devices. Further, as BYOD took off, the only platform capable of delivering enterprise-grade security was BlackBerry, and no one was bringing his or her own BlackBerry.

Bringing better security to BYOD

For most of us, our mobile and personal devices have become extensions of our lives and even bodies. Most of us carry our smartphones with us all the time, and when we can’t find them, we feel lost.

We are essentially always on, always connected to the Internet. This notion of anytime, anywhere access has extended not only to our personal lives but also our professional.

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In the name of employee productivity, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies have become widespread and blurred the lines between our personal and corporate lives. Employees bringing their personal devices into work-related activities and communications both inside and outside of regular working hours have become the norm practice.

Companies must embrace BYOD strategically

Research shows that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is not only here to stay, but will, in fact, grow in significance in next few years. Human Capital Management and HR experts at CRS Technologies believe that businesses ought to conduct a thorough cost and needs analysis before applying a strategy.

The company refers to Gartner studies on this evolving trend, specifically the prediction that almost four in ten (40%) organisations will rely exclusively on BYOD by 2016.

“Meaning they will no longer provide devices to employees. Additionally, eighty five percent of businesses will have some kind of BYOD program in place by 2020,” says James McKerrell, CEO of CRS Technologies.

Against this background of fast growing significance and relevance to the market, it is to be expected that companies will be eager to formulate and apply a BYOD strategy as a matter of urgency.

But it is more advisable for business decision makers to take a step back, consider a number of factors and measure these against core business requirements – irrespective of how attractive the proposition to reduce company investment in devices and lower costs is to financial directors, says McKerrell.

Be wary
Key considerations include data privacy and security, compatibility, and tech leasing. As McKerrell explains if employees are allowed to use their own mobile devices at work there is a need to implement a robust BYOD security policy.

“This policy should clearly state the company’s position and governance policy to ensure network security is not breached. Privacy can be compromised on both sides. Just one stolen phone can send an entire organisation into crisis. Things like remote deletion of data and access points come to the fore,” he says.

BYOD new to IT service desk

The IT service desk has officially opened in a new location on the first floor of the CCT building, now providing students with a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) space. There is currently a contest underway to name the new space.

Replacing the computer lab previously located in the CCT atrium, the IT service team envisioned extra support for BYOD spaces, which allow and encourage individuals to bring their own mobile devices for educational or work purposes.

According to information and instructional technology director Susan Senese, an increasing number of students are bringing their own devices to school. As part of the IT team’s vision, their strategy was to enrich the student experience by providing students with more study spaces that support their own devices, rather than providing them with additional computers.

In addition to the BYOD space located in front of the new IT desk—which will also be used as a space for instructional activities by IT staff—the back of the new centre is equipped with six stations for full-time employees working on special projects and hosting training sessions.

Also new to the IT service desk are different operating hours.

“We’re going from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with the hopes of helping staff, faculty, and students throughout the day,” said Michael Young, manager of IT customer service, on Wednesday morning during the grand opening of the service desk. Previous operating hours were 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Read More: http://themedium.ca/news/byod-new-to-it-service-desk

As BYOD becomes common, the importance of Internet Security

Today's workforce is reliant on computers, laptops and smartphones as the infrastructural extensions of an organization. These devices, endowed with the power of the internet, carry important documents and passwords that form a virtual identity for organizations, especially with BYOD policies becoming a trend. Therefore, it is essential organizations ensure that they have the best of internet security to guarantee that their identity is not compromised or important data lost.

The advent of the internet opened up yet another platform for fraudsters, who not only hack computers, steal private passwords, documents and files, but are also identity thieves. Despite this, some SMEs and big enterprises are still very complacent in terms of internet security and seem to believe that their computers are invisible. They have still not realized that the moment their job requires them to log on to the internet, they can easily fall prey to such online thugs.

In order to ensure this security, not only the CIOs, but the employees of a company should understand a few simple things about being on the internet and act accordingly. The foremost thing to know is where online data is stored, along with understanding the encryption of that data. With the growing popularity of big data and intellectual property amongst the corporates, these elements are constantly under the risk of loss, theft or exposure to unwanted entities. Similarly, personal data such as credit card information and corporate confidential data and information are under the same threat. There are many laws and regulations mandating data loss prevention with the objective of privacy protection and cross border data transfer. Today with BYOD policies, it is very difficult to control the flow and storage of the data, especially with the plethora of social media and other file sharing applications.

Read More: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/security-tech/security/as-byod-becomes-common-the-importance-of-internet-security/articleshow/50167658.cms