Member Article

Embracing the change in secure mobility

While take-up of non-Blackberry mobile solutions in the private sector has been rapid, the public sector has largely remained in the BlackBerry era. However, recent pressure from end users and the availability of other secure, comprehensive alternatives has prompted the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance (or CESG) to develop and release mobile ‘End User Device’ guidance for the use of alternative mobile devices in the public sector.

The move away from the familiar to mobile presents fresh security challenges: open operating systems, malicious applications, and relinquishing trust of corporate data to the same device your employee uses to send tweets or personal emails. These guidelines enable public sector organisations to embrace secure mobility, in a way that’s been restricted to them thus far. Layering on top of this device management (“MDM”), CESG’s’ Security Guidance for Good Dynamics and Good for Enterprise’ gives public sector executives guidance on implementing Good’s secure solutions within their departments.

This is a critical point because most public sector enterprises come to realise that mobile can transform not only tasks but also complete line-of-business workflows, in so doing potentially contributing directly to major organisational transformations. But they also know that their top two assets to get the enterprise to its destination are their people and their data – which can be either a beneficial or lethal combination.

These recent announcements suggest that finally the public sector as a whole is much more willing to follow the private sector in the march towards a cross-platform, secure mobile world. Public sector organisations must embrace this change and its accompanying benefits, which include increased employee productivity levels, or face being left behind.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chris Roberts .