Securing the office in your pocket

By NIck Lowe | Jul 19, 2010

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Over the past decade, enterprises have experienced a significant increase in workforce mobility.  Employees routinely connect to their offices from home PCs via VPN connections, use wireless hotspots in airports, and receive work emails on smartphone devices.  What’s more, organizations are offering access to partner and contractors.

While this drive for anytime, anywhere access to applications and resources offers advantages in terms of productivity and efficiency, it also introduces a number of significant security risks to the enterprise. 

First, there’s the diversity of remote access methods being used for business.  Some employees will use company laptops or home PCs to connect to the office via VPN links; some will process work emails on smartphones or handheld devices.  Another group may use wireless hotspots or Internet kiosks in public areas, or log in from PCs at partner or customer sites. 

Some of these remote endpoints are fully managed and under the control of the business IT team; others may be completely insecure and unmanaged.  Extending secure access across this wide range of methods and devices is a headache for any organisation.

Second, enterprises need to protect their sensitive company or customer information data against the risks of data breaches.  Corporate laptops and smartphones are all too easily lost or stolen, and often lack encryption – making them easy prey for thieves. 

Passwords, login credentials, and sensitive files can be left behind on untrusted devices at the end of a remote access session, making it available to subsequent users.  And of course there’s the ever-present threat of malware and malicious attacks, both from the web and from unsecured PCs.

Last, but by no means least, there’s the sheer cost of owning and managing a fleet of corporate laptops or portable devices, to allow mobile working.  These costs include the purchase price, software licensing, security applications, managing updates and patches, repairs and replacements, and so on. 

The checklist for remote working
Businesses need a solution that:
•    Gives flexible and secure access to information resources and applications from almost any location and type of PC 
•    Keeps sensitive data secure at all times against loss, theft or hacking 
•    Is cheaper to deploy and manage than a traditional laptop PC, to help reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO).

In addition, users shouldn’t have to waste time on issues such as unnecessary re-authentication or connection issues when using VPNs.  Nor should they have to remember to encrypt individual files or documents when they are copying or saving their work. 

Meeting this checklist of requirements could be fearsomely complex if conventional point security products were used – such as separate VPN, anti-virus, encryption, personal firewalling and intrusion prevention. 

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