IBM: BYOD Brings Security Woes, Consumerization & Hassles Over iPhone Vs. Android OS Discussion

[Jacqueline Emigh]

With more employees bringing their own personal smartphones and tablets to work, employers are weighing Apple's iOS vs. Google's Android OS, including associated security and management concerns, IBM officials said this week.

Read the full content of this Article: IBM: BYOD Brings Security Woes, Consumerization & Hassles Over iPhone Vs. Android OS

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[EC4IT]

It's possible to address security concerns and still implement BYOD. What’s needed is to separate the Enterprise apps and data from the personal devices. This can be achieved with a solution like Ericom's AccessNow, a pure HTML5 RDP client that enables remote users to securely connect from various devices (including iPads, iPhones, Android devices and Chromebooks) to any RDP host, including Terminal Server (RDS Session Host), physical desktops or VDI virtual desktops – and run their applications and desktops in a browser. This keeps the organization's applications and data separate from the employee's personal device. All that’s needed is a HTML5 browser. No plug-ins or anything else required on the user device.

AccessNow also provides an optional Secure Gateway component enabling external users to securely connect to internal resources using AccessNow, without requiring a VPN.

For more info, and to download a demo, visit the Ericom web site.

Note: I work for Ericom

[r0k]

Welcome to Brighthand, EC4IT!

I'm a user of an iPhone in a corporate environment. The way they handle user supplied devices differs. There are 2 ways to connect. One is browser based and sucks badly. The other relies on installing some company software on a user's personal phone. My friends with Android devices have an app to load that doesn't "take over" their phone. Sadly my iPhone is almost ruined by my company's exchange profile and it's draconian passcode complexity and change frequency requirements.

I went to IT and demanded they take the profile off my phone and they loaded a slightly better one so I'm happier but still there are times I want to reach for my device to make a call and I'm typing a "complex" passcode just so I can make a call or reply to an imessage. A much better approach would be a separate app where I would have to enter my company password so my phone would be locked for company use and unlocked for my use.

A browser based approach is something we have dabbled with but I opted for the exchange profile because it was much more seamless. My business emails show up in my normal inbox. My business meetings show up in my normal calendar. I really hate launching the browser on iOS. It's the best browser out there but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

One area is mobile versions of sites that leave off vital information and assume that if you're coming from a mobile device you simply don't need to do x. I waste a lot of time and money on third party browsers that promise to "spoof" the user agent and get around brain dead mobile versions of sites but often times these browsers crash or fail to implement some feature the site requires to actually work properly. The brain dead mobile version is the approach our IT people took. If our IT people lifted a finger to make the html5 implementation work better, I could do away with this onerous exchange profile and simply use my browser to do my work.

Then there's the whole RDP thing. Despite "retina" resolution, the iPhone display is simply too tiny to do many of the things I need to do. Your approach sounds like it would be great on an iPad but for phone users, I think we'll have to stick with our (badly designed) html5 based gateways to our IT resources, custom apps and exchange profiles for now.

[Varjak]

Another issue relates to the recent privacy issues with iPhone and Android. Does using some of these apps that riffle through your phone's contacts and such also open up the enterprise software to being pillaged? If you use an Exchange server are those contacts and stuff vulnerable?

[headcronie]

Sadly my iPhone is almost ruined by my company's exchange profile and it's draconian passcode complexity and change frequency requirements.

I went to IT and demanded they take the profile off my phone and they loaded a slightly better one so I'm happier but still there are times I want to reach for my device to make a call and I'm typing a "complex" passcode just so I can make a call or reply to an imessage.

You're lucky they did that. Had you come up to my office and said the same, I'd have shown you the door to which you just walked through. We have those policies to cover our ass. They aren't there for your convenience. If you so deem that you must have your work information on your own device, we're going to make dang sure it is safe. Not some trivial pin number, not some pathetic swipe. That's our enterprise information you're carrying around on your device. Don't like it? You've got an option - don't use it. I've said that to our staff before, and I'll say it again. If you are going to get fired for stupidity, you're not going to take the IT department down with you for making it easy to lose our data.