Mobile Management Software: When You Need It and When You Don't

I realize that most of you who read my blog have some sort of smart mobile device.  Whether it be an iPhone or iPad or both.  Or maybe you are more for the Android world and have an Android phone and/or tablet.  Most of you don't think much about the security of your device.  You just use it and that is that.  Let me relate three stories that may change the way that you look at smart mobile devices.

A good friend of mine uses a company-owned iPad.  He has had it for a few years and keeps all things pertaining to his job on it.  Recently he flew to Florida for a big business conference.  While at the conference, one of the times he went to restroom he left his iPad in the stall.  (How many of you are guilty of using a mobile device in the restroom?)  So after finishing his business, he went back to the conference.  A little while later he wants to take some notes, but where is his iPad?!?.  The iPad has all his confidential business information on it.  Of course he ran back to the restroom, to the stall, and no iPad - Stolen!

A second story occurred to a good friends daughter at soccer practice.  She put her iPhone inside her backpack, zipped up the backpack and practiced.  When the practice was over, she retrieved her backpack, unzipped it, and no iPhone!  It was Stolen!

The last story happened to my daughter, who, imagine that, plays soccer too.  She was listening to her iPod Touch en-route to a soccer practice.  When she arrived, she put her iPod Touch inside her backpack and went to practice.  After practice, she, too, retrieved her backpack, unzipped it, and no iPod Touch - Gone - Stolen!

I remember reading somewhere (too lazy to look it up) that stated that Apple products are among the most commonly stolen products in the world.  I am sure that applies to mobile devices, laptops, and electronics in general.

Enter Mobile Management.  There are several companies that off great solutions to secure your mobile devices.  Most of the big companies are involved such as IBM, Microsoft, Apple, and Novell.  Lots of other smaller companies also have offerings.

So, what does a mobile management solution buy you?  I will list several features, but one big one is the wiping of sensitive data from your device when it has been stolen.  So here is a list of features that most mobile management solution providers offer:

• Software Distribution - The ability to manage application on mobile devices by deploying, installing, updating, deleting, or blocking access to a particular application.
• Security Management - The ability to allow or prevent a user from doing particular things on their mobile device.  One example would be using YouTube.
• Inventory Management - Provides a great way to track who has mobile devices in your company and where those mobile devices are at any given time.
• Policy Management - The ability to create policies that can apply to everyone or just a small group of people at your company.  For example you may want different restrictions for company-owned devices as compared to personally owned devices.
• File Distribution - The ability to distribute files to your employees securely.

 This is just a quick glazing over of features that mobile management software provides.  When you install the application portion of a mobile management solution on your device, you will typically see a copyright page, a page for pushing applications to the device, a page for file management, and that is about it.  Almost 90% of the functionality of a mobile management product is behind the scenes; you will never see it operating, but you will see the end result on your device.

So lets look at the three situations I described earlier and see if a mobile management solution could or did help the situation. 

The first, my friend who left his iPad in the bathroom.  When he realized it was stolen, he immediately called companies help desk or IS&T department and reported the theft.  Since the company was using a mobile management solution, they immediately issued a wipe device command.  This cannot be halted by a user, returning the device back to the state it was in when it was originally purchased.  This unfortunately doesn't get the device back, but does destroy any company confidential information on the device/

The second situation with by friends daughter, they used Apple's locate device service.  They were able to find exactly where the iPhone was.  They called up the local police and with the offer in tow, went to the house where the location service indicated.  Turned out to be one of my friend's daughter's teammates.  When confronted with whether she had the phone, she went and got the phone and gave some silly story about it falling into her backpack.  iPhone recovered!

The third situation with my daughter didn't turn out so well.  Since he has an iPod Touch stolen, there is no GPS functionality in it that would allow it to be tracked like an iPhone.  However, had she installed a mobile management solution, when the device was next attached to a wireless network, the wipe device command would have been able to execute.  As it stands, my daughter has had to change her password on her email and a variety of other Internet-based services.  I feel bad for her.

In summary, if your company doesn't have a mobile management solution, highly encourage them to get one.!

Til next time,

Bill Freeton