Datacom advises how to secure your mobile workforce at AusCERT2012

How do you allow Bring Your Own Device to sweep through your organisation’s doors without putting everything and everyone inside it at risk? Richard Byfield, managing director of Datacom’s Technical Security Services (TSS) and a specialist in managing cyber and information security functions for the Australian and New Zealand governments, has these mobility security tips ahead of the Gold Coast AusCERT2012 security conference he is participating in next week:

* Centrally configure, monitor and manage smartphones and tablets

* Ensure mobile infrastructure, devices and apps start, and remain, in a trusted and compliant state

* Protect devices from corporate data loss while preventing security breaches and non-compliance scenarios

* Securely deploy and manage corporate apps, data and documents

* Mitigate the risks associated with devices operating in a compromised state or within an environment that could expose it to threat

* Address regulatory compliance and produce up-to-date auditable compliance reports

Datacom TSS was created 18 months ago to fill the kinds of security gaps emerging with trends such as BYOD. Byfield and the Datacom TSS team help organisations thwart sophisticated cyber threats in a cost-effective and practical way. Organisations must take into account the integrity and security of mobile infrastructure, devices and apps as well as the risks associated with end users, device loss and situational context, he says.

“The practice of people choosing to use their preferred mobile device of choice for personal and corporate use is already happening,” Byfield says. “Allowing personal devices to be used for corporate use is introducing unique and complex risks that go beyond the devices themselves. Risk mitigation and enablement and finding the right balance for allowing personal devices to be configured to minimise the risks to the business, maintain compliance and protect personal data are key to effectively adopting an effective BYO device policy.”

“An adversary is constantly looking for an easy method of compromise,” Byfield adds. “The move to targeting mobile devices without sufficient levels of security to gain access to information inside the corporation will occur, especially if this is the least costly attack vector for doing so.”

Byfield will speak on BYOD security at a live panel for AusCERT2012, hosted and streamed by ZDNet, in Queensland from May 14 to 18. AusCERT event organisers handpicked expert speakers from around the world, including Susan Landau , engineer and Harvard University scholar on cyber security policy issues, and Kaspersky Lab co-founder, chairman and CEO Eugene Kaspersky, to discuss the various security risks related to mobility and the best solutions being used to mitigate them.

About Datacom

With 3,800 people, Datacom is one of the largest Australasian-owned professional IT services companies, offering clients flexibility and choice, with revenues in excess of A$650 million and extensive experience in the operation of data centres and the provision of IT services, application development and business process outsourcing. Founded in 1965 and operating in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines and China, Datacom has a successful 47-year trading history, is consistently growing and profitable and has a track record of delivering innovative, value-for-money technology-based solutions, with many clients in relationships spanning decades.

About AusCERT2012

In Australia, the annual AusCERT conference is the premier IT security event for IT security professionals and all those with an interest in IT security. This is the 11th year we have been running this conference and interest in the conference from delegates, speakers and sponsors has grown accordingly. In 2011, almost 1100 delegates attended and AusCERT2012 is expected to attract similar numbers. As before, we also expect to attract delegates from organisations worldwide.

AusCERT is the leading Computer Emergency Response Team for Australia and provides computer information security advice to the Australian public and its members, including the higher education sector. We are a single point of contact for dealing with computer security incidents affecting or involving Australian networks.