The Enterprise Mobile On-Device Security Components

By Rich Campagna, Subbu Iyer, and Ashwin Krishnan from Mobile Device Security For Dummies

The enterprise mobile on-device security components are firewall, antivirus, antispam, intrusion prevention, and enforceable encryption. When you roll out on-device security components, you must prioritize: Which components do you implement first? Eventually you want to arrive at a complete security strategy that includes all the components in your security arsenal, but let’s get real: First things first. You need a horse in front of the cart to get things rolling.

Device-based firewall: A native firewall running on the smartphone as a barrier against uninvited intruders.
Device-based antivirus: Antivirus technology installed on the smartphone.
Device-based antispam: Built-in filtering capability that protects your users from the unwanted barrage of incoming bulk e-mails.
Device-based intrusion prevention (including SMS): A sophisticated and application-aware firewall designed specifically to detect attempted hacks and protect the smartphone against intruders.
Device-based enforceable encryption: A feature that protects data communication on the smartphone by obfuscating the data resident on the device and encrypting data in transit as it originates from the device.

The threat vectors are many, and the forms of attack are varied. Any solution you adopt must be versatile enough to counter this multi-pronged frontal assault that users and their devices face day and night.

Your users’ biggest nightmare (at least the one that haunts their smartphones) is battery life - or lack of it. Turning on all the on-device security solutions at once may be tempting, but it hits battery life big-time. Therefore, you have to pick and choose a combination of on-device and provider-based models for a more practical deployment solution.