Sophos Launches Mobile Control for Enterprise Mobile Device Management

Sophos has enhanced its security portfolio to provide “complete protection” for all endpoints, including mobile devices, desktops and laptops, regardless of where the user is.

Sophos unveiled the Sophos Mobile Control, a new mobile-device-management platform that will allow IT departments to securely protect all employee devices, on May 17. The company also updated its SafeGuard Enterprise software and Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection platform to provide better support for data encryption.

Enterprises face two major security challenges, a mobile workforce and the consumerization of IT, Rainer Gawlick, the chief marketing officer at Sophos, told eWEEK. Employees are using their personal mobile devices to get onto the company network and access corporate data. IT departments have to somehow manage devices the company doesn’t own to ensure corporate data remains protected, according to Gawlick.

The day the iPad came out, the CEO of a Sophos customer told his IT department, “I expect to be able to use it. Make it happen.” Gawlick said this was a “core use case,” and in many cases, IT managers have to balance these requests with compliance regulations that require strict data controls.

IT administrators are looking for an “uncomplicated” platform that “just works,” Gawlick said.

With Sophos Mobile Control, IT administrators can configure security settings for all devices and lock down unwanted features, such as disabling the camera. They can also enforce policies, such as making sure that sites that employees can’t browse on the desktop are also blocked on their mobile browsers. The policies can also control what kind of applications can be installed on the devices.

Unlike “vanilla PCs,” there’s generally only one way to be compromised on a mobile device, and that’s via the “front door” when an application is being installed, Gawlick said. The application policy would apply whether the user is trying to download an application or if a rogue site is trying to stealthily install malware.

For more, read the eWEEK article: Sophos Takes on Enterprise Mobile-Device-Security Management.