Expert offers several security tips to manage collaboration solutions

Monday, October 31, 2011

The increased use of mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, and collaboration technology has caused greater security concerns for organizations, according to a recent CSO report.

Contributing writer Paula Skokowski indicated that personal USB drives used to be the norm to transfer data, but the emergence of new technology, including cloud computing and collaboration services are now being utilized.

To help secure data crossing through their IT infrastructure, businesses should adopt a mobile device management policy, according to Skokowski.

"Employees need to do their jobs; IT needs to equip them to do so by offering 'whitelisted' or approved [mobile] apps that answer the same need, while providing IT the necessary control and insight over corporate data," said Skokowski.

Other ways organizations can better manage these technologies is through server-based, rather than client-based, security options according to Skokowski.

The increased adoption of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices is expected to fuel the enterprise mobility management services industry. According to a recent ABI Research, the market to manage mobile applications, devices, content, network services, policies and security, is projected to reach $11 billion worldwide by 2016.