Nuremberg – Around the world, the trend towards BYOD – short for ‘bring your own device’, i.e. the practice of employees of an organization to use their own computers, smartphones, or other devices for work purposes – is inexorable. It raises security issues, however, and points to a demand for a user-friendly, uncomplicated and effective solution to address these concerns. IT security leader certgate proposes just such a solution with its certified, safe and convenient plug & play cgCard product for the BlackBerry and Android mobile operating systems as well as for Windows Surface OS.
Market evolution
The German IT industry association BITKOM observes a growing tendency in the domestic market to use privately owned devices at the workplace: 43% of the companies in the ITC sector allow their employees to use their own devices to connect to the enterprise network. Employer motivations vary: 81% believe it contributes to higher employee satisfaction, 74% expect it to enhance productivity, and 40% believe it helps their image as a modern employer. The new generation of young, qualified employees plays a key role in this tectonic shift. Companies want them, and they in turn want to be able to use their own devices on the job. People who use services such as Dropbox and Evernote and social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn privately aren’t prepared to give them up professionally.
Security risks
For years now data protection experts have been pointing to the hazards inherent in letting employees connect to company infrastructures with their privately owned ITC devices. Security risks are especially high in the universe of younger, highly qualified employees: a recent Censuswide survey commissioned by Oracle shows that young employees in particular are quite unaware of the security risks associated with handling privileged company information on their mobile devices: although the incidence of lost or stolen devices is much higher in this group than with older employees, accessing privileged company information from privately owned devices is still considered the most natural thing in the world. Is this just another issue specific to millennials – the Digital Natives – who don’t have a feel for what might separate the personal from the professional, and generally have a more carefree attitude toward data security?
Stefan Schmidt-Egermann, Head of Sales & Marketing of certgate, the Nuremberg-based specialist for mobile IT security solutions, still sees the need for action at the IT department level of organizations: “Making sure BYOD works out for both the company and the people working there is a broad undertaking. But if companies want to retain great talent today and keep attracting it tomorrow, they must adapt to the change. It starts with a sound BYOD policy. Ensuring that the company’s data is protected and that devices accessing this data are secure depends on going about the integration of BYOD into the enterprise infrastructure the right way.”
The certgate solution
certgate proposes security products that are highly secure and easy to use for all major mobile device brands (Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Windows). The company’s portfolio ranges from on-device data encryption to securing enterprise communications (e-mail, voice, VPN). Enterprise data is strictly segregated from private data at all times as well as protected with a secure element hardware module – a smartcard chip – certified by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
certgate’s technology enables companies to block access to their protected data at any time, even remotely. This combination of a device-specific hardware secure element and an enterprise-specific mobile device management (MDM) system is one of the most easiest as well as safest security solutions for companies that intend to create a BYOD environment.
Market evolution
The German IT industry association BITKOM observes a growing tendency in the domestic market to use privately owned devices at the workplace: 43% of the companies in the ITC sector allow their employees to use their own devices to connect to the enterprise network. Employer motivations vary: 81% believe it contributes to higher employee satisfaction, 74% expect it to enhance productivity, and 40% believe it helps their image as a modern employer. The new generation of young, qualified employees plays a key role in this tectonic shift. Companies want them, and they in turn want to be able to use their own devices on the job. People who use services such as Dropbox and Evernote and social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn privately aren’t prepared to give them up professionally.
Security risks
For years now data protection experts have been pointing to the hazards inherent in letting employees connect to company infrastructures with their privately owned ITC devices. Security risks are especially high in the universe of younger, highly qualified employees: a recent Censuswide survey commissioned by Oracle shows that young employees in particular are quite unaware of the security risks associated with handling privileged company information on their mobile devices: although the incidence of lost or stolen devices is much higher in this group than with older employees, accessing privileged company information from privately owned devices is still considered the most natural thing in the world. Is this just another issue specific to millennials – the Digital Natives – who don’t have a feel for what might separate the personal from the professional, and generally have a more carefree attitude toward data security?
Stefan Schmidt-Egermann, Head of Sales & Marketing of certgate, the Nuremberg-based specialist for mobile IT security solutions, still sees the need for action at the IT department level of organizations: “Making sure BYOD works out for both the company and the people working there is a broad undertaking. But if companies want to retain great talent today and keep attracting it tomorrow, they must adapt to the change. It starts with a sound BYOD policy. Ensuring that the company’s data is protected and that devices accessing this data are secure depends on going about the integration of BYOD into the enterprise infrastructure the right way.”
The certgate solution
certgate proposes security products that are highly secure and easy to use for all major mobile device brands (Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Windows). The company’s portfolio ranges from on-device data encryption to securing enterprise communications (e-mail, voice, VPN). Enterprise data is strictly segregated from private data at all times as well as protected with a secure element hardware module – a smartcard chip – certified by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
certgate’s technology enables companies to block access to their protected data at any time, even remotely. This combination of a device-specific hardware secure element and an enterprise-specific mobile device management (MDM) system is one of the most easiest as well as safest security solutions for companies that intend to create a BYOD environment.
