Next-generation end-point management and security

New Quocirca research has been published to coincide with the launch of a service from Trend Micro called SafeSync for Business. The research shows that among SMBs in Europe, the US and Australia, 88 per cent say that at least some of their employees are using smartphones for business purposes and 43 per cent report at least one or more of their employees using tablet PCs. These devices are not always owned by the business; 74 per cent of SMBs say some of the devices used are employee-owned (part of the so-called consumerisation of IT).
 
This underlines a growing problem for organisations of all sizes. They have to manage and secure a growing variety of devices and operating systems – and at the same time, deal with the rising tide of consumerisation. From a security perspective, there are an increasing number of products coming to market for securing mobile devices.

Examples include:

· Juniper’s Junos Pulse Mobile Security Suite, following its acquisition of S-Mobile (supports Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Apple iOS
· Symantec’s Norton Mobile Security (for Android)
· Webroot Mobile Security for Android
· ESET Mobile Security Business Edition for Windows Mobile and Symbian
 
It is notable that two of these products are, for now, only available for Android. The reason for this is twofold; first, use of Android is growing faster than any other mobile operating system, so it is worth targeting (it was reported last week that 400,000 Android devices were being activated per day). There have already been problems; for example in March, Google removed 21 free apps from the Android Market which it identified as malware aimed at stealing personal information. Second, Android is the most open of the mobile operating systems and therefore easier for both malware writers and security vendors to develop for.
 
For businesses, host device-based protection is just one approach to protecting mobile data use. Indeed, relying on device-based malware detection can be problematic if the devices are user owned. Another approach is to centralise data access and to minimise the need for data to be stored on mobile devices in the first place. This is the aim of Trend Micro’s new product, which enables such sharing. Another way to centralise access is via virtualisation using products such as Citrix’s Xen Desktop.
 
With the proliferation of such devices all businesses need to be thinking about the security of the devices themselves and perhaps more urgently about safe access to data. Enabling such access may make certain business processes more efficient but is also likely to be putting intellectual property and personally identified information at risk.
 
In June 2011, Quocirca will be running a workshop on end-point security and management at the NextGen Security European Summit 2011. More information is available here. The subject of end-point management is also covered in a freely available Quocirca report The IT Profit Centre sponsored by Kaseya entitled.

Bob Tarzey, analyst and director, Quocirca