Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is the process of leveraging people and technology to secure sensitive data present on employee devices. EMM automates security configurations on devices so they’re ready for corporate use. It also enables you to keep security threats at bay, regardless of their attack vector. Whether the threat comes from an app, the Internet or the device itself, EMM solutions can prevent critical data loss and unauthorised data access.
How can EMM be deployed in a way that enhances an organisation’s mobile security? What problems around mobile security will it solve?
Any enterprise’s primary concern should be securing confidential data, which requires constant protection and proactive policies. The best way to meet this requirement is to protect data when it is at rest, in transit, and in use.
EMM protects data at rest through encryption, secure passcodes, and remote data wipes. Data in transit is protected through certificates, restrictions on Wi-Fi use, single sign-on (SSO), as well as per-app VPN. You can protect data that’s in use by securely sharing confidential documents, preventing apps from unknown sources from being installed, and restricting app-level data sharing.
EMM also makes it easy to remove malicious apps upon identification and force system updates to patch existing security vulnerabilities.
What are the most impactful EMM trends and why?
Operating system (OS) providers are beginning to concentrate more on mobile security to ensure EMM can focus on mobile threat defense. For example, Google’s introduction of Play Protect is a step towards implementing vulnerability screening of malicious apps. This will provide an additional level security on personal and work devices such as smartphones and tablets, reducing the risks for businesses and individuals.
Across the board, advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence will make it easier to analyse malicious behavior while original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will enhance data protection protocols to make devices enterprise-ready as a standard. EMM solutions and independent software vendors (ISVs) will form partnerships, whereby the former leverages the expertise of the latter. For example, an EMM solution partnering with file sharing services (such as Box) can provide a secure way to share confidential documents.
These trends will have a significant impact as the BYOD environment continues to grow, with organisations better understanding the benefits of mobile device usage.
How will EMM and mobile security change over the next 12-18 months?
With the growing number of heterogeneous device types used in the corporate workforce, organisations will start looking for a unified endpoint management (UEM) solution to manage all their endpoints. An effective UEM will enable inventory of authorized and unauthorized software and devices, enable control of administrative privileges and secure endpoint configurations.
With the GDPR coming into full effect in the coming months, mobile device users will have more control over their personal data, while organisations will be held accountable for breaches that affect those users’ data, therefore robust security measures must be put into practice.
Organisations will look for ways to make their security and compliance policies data-agnostic through methods such as containerization. Containerization creates a simplified approach to DevOps and saves on server memory while reducing costs and increasing scalability.
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