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Are Your Smartphones Properly “Containerized”?

April 26th, 2016 by admin

Cartoon of a brown picket fence with green grass in front and shrubs on the other side

Earlier today the cashier at the local drive-thru miskeyed the amount of cash I gave him into his register. Somewhat sheepishly, he asked if I had a smartphone so I could verify the correct amount of change. Fortunately, I never leave home without it.

In fact, how well could you function today without your smartphone? It's more than a telephone, camera, or calculator. It's really a miniaturized computer—with most of the capabilities of a desktop or laptop. For better or worse, it's a device we've come to rely upon.

A Mobile World

The mobility of smartphones has likewise made them indispensable work tools. Once upon a time, professionals carried a company-issued "work phone" along with their personal cell phone.

But today, given a choice, most would rather access work-related data from a single device in their pockets. This creates unique issues, however:
  • How safe is confidential company data on an unsecured mobile device? If it's lost or stolen, what are the consequences? And how many of the countless downloadable user apps stealthily require permission to access—or even modify—other properties of the phone?
  • By the same token, users are reluctant to link their company network with the same device they use for private activities—personal email, music, photos, or their online dating profile.

How many companies wrestle with defining security of their employees' access between business and personal data via their smartphones? This is a very important facet of a comprehensive BYOD (bring-your-own-device) policyas we've already talked about.

Containerization = Safety and Privacy

The answer for smartphones revolves around what has been termed containerization—creating a virtual partition between business and personal applications within a single device. When switched to a containerized "business mode," all inbound/outbound network traffic is automatically secured via supplemental authentication, advanced 240-bit encryption, and other measures which block out unauthorized apps—or malware.

If the phone is lost or stolen—or the employee leaves the company—network access from that device can be remotely severed in a flash. Meanwhile, the user can toggle their phone back into conventional Android or iOS smartphone mode, assuring their personal apps and files remain private and "unsnoopable" by Big Brother (or at least their boss).

Containerization is a fairly new buzzword in mobile security, but there's already a slew of vendors hopping on the bandwagon and offering a wide range of turnkey products. Which options offer the right protection and the best bang-for-the-buck? As usual with IT decisions, finding the right solution can be daunting—but we have the expertise to help. To learn more about containerization and more of the latest developments in IT security, talk with us.

Posted in: Managed IT Services, Support, Knowledge