In 
Barely had Manish Jain, senior IT manager of a mid-size packaging firm, settled down for a late dinner, that he got a call from his boss, the CIO. Apparently, the boss, who was travelling abroad, had misplaced his Blackberry and was sweating with worry. Manish, disable the darn thing and erase the data immediately. The instructions were prompt and precise.
Manish punched in a few messages that carried a secret code and replied to a few automated responses. The CIOs device was disabled and wiped clean.
The good thing about this incident was that Jain was aware of the remote-wiping capabilities in the device and was prepared to handle the eventuality. But that is not the case with hundreds of other IT managers. While mobile enterprise usage has grown manifold, the threats have increased in tandem.
Mobile enterprise devices are not just portable but also allow users to send and receive updates in real time across branches. However, the device has also brought with it a confusing tangle of mobile platforms, with endless number of technology challenges, revolving around device provisioning, compliance, security, performance management support, and decommissioning.
It is vital to evaluate the security framework for mobile devices as lost or stolen devices can endanger confidential data and compliance efforts, causing terrible pain in the long run, says Shankarnarayan Dharmarajan, Marketing Manager, Wireless, Security and Routing Technology Group, Cisco India & SAARC.
Back to basics
Organisations often fail to lay appropriate emphasis on cannons that are indispensable for IT security of an enterprise. For instance, have you given a serious thought to the number of times your employees expose company data, deliberately or inadvertently, through their USB and removable storage devices? And more importantly, are you constantly evaluating which data needs to be protected, at which level, and for what period? If not, then you too, might end up in a predicament similar to Jains.
Designing best business practices to secure valuable information, irrespective of the location or the device, is a critical job for any organisation. We constantly attempt to improve our policies as per the necessity of our operations, says Prakash Pradhan, Head IT at Jagsanpal Pharmaceuticals.
For an IT manager, managing devices, applications, data and communications proactively is critical to the success of mobile workers. While strong encryption and inbuilt password protection is critical, the devices should be managed from a central console, wirelessly, so that repair and maintenance can be done without physically bringing the devices back for service.
Add new comment