Although certain government agencies have been behind the times when it comes to adopting technology, there are some practices enterprises can learn from federal officials. In a recent post for Peerlyst, Josh Moulin, Chief Information Security Officer for an unnamed agency that deals with sensitive information, said that Mobile Device Management is crucial, though not comprehensive, for effective, secure BYOD activity.
As Moulin described it, there are pros and cons to relying on MDM for device protection. On the one hand, this approach can help organizations log user activity to help stay aware of anything problematic.
In this case, the right professionals within the business will know when something threatens a device in the network. However, even though they give the organization control, they are expensive and don't always protect against physical compromises such as a lost device.
Managing mobile devices is important for keeping up with federal security standards.There's also the high threat of insider security risks, which may play out differently than those from some outside attacker. As a recent Recode article mentioned, employees can either intentionally or inadvertently cause data breaches that threaten an organization, especially one with valuable user data.
Administrators should notice a difference between deliberate maliciousness, in which an employee discloses protected information to someone on purpose, and breaches that come from negligence or accident. An example of the latter could be sending a protected document to the wrong person, something that existing protections might not be able to fully guard against.
With a browser based terminal emulator, enterprises can set their own security logs and work toward a fuller means of integrating different devices. By relying on a process that doesn't involve older, out of date applets, IT professionals also cut out another possible source of security hazards within their workforce.