Mitigating BYOD Risks on Network

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Published on Tuesday, 17 July 2012 16:03

Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) trend has resulted in a growing number of employee-owned devices on the network. Unauthorized use of the corporate network leads to security issues, as well as potential disruption of the network. In order to mitigate some of the risks on corporates networks, Blue Coat has introduced mobile application controls.


As employees increasingly bring their own mobile devices to work, the mobile app security gap has widened. The vendor says its new solution gives IT the ability to manage the use of unsanctioned applications and enforce policies across all devices on the network. The growth in BYOD initiatives has driven an increase in mobile devices and unmanaged applications on the corporate network.

According to Forrester Research, 57 percent of employees chose and purchased their own smartphone without any direction or guidance from their company. According to mobile application measurement company Flurry, each smartphone has, on average, 65 mobile apps installed. With 350 million employees expected to use smartphones at work by 2016, the number of mobile applications using the corporate network will continue to skyrocket.

The increase in mobile devices on the corporate network creates two distinct risks that lead to undesired or unpredictable network impacts. First, it contributes to the growing problem of unsanctioned applications on the corporate network.  Second, corporate policies cannot be consistently enforced across all devices.

Like web-based applications, the use of mobile applications is eroding IT control of the network. Unlike browser-based web applications, however, mobile applications and their corresponding operations are typically self-contained and fall outside the control of traditional web security solutions. Blue Coat says with these operational controls, businesses can set policies around specific functions within both web-based and mobile applications.

This enables businesses to enforce policy across all devices and allows them to regain control over the applications on their network. For example, a business that wants to mitigate unintentional leaks of confidential or secure location information could set a policy for Twitter that prevents employees from sending tweets but allows full reading or monitoring access.

“The growth of BYOD initiatives has created a situation where IT security managers are facing a deluge of untrusted, unmanaged devices and applications on the corporate network,” says Dave Ewart, director of product marketing, EMEA at Blue Coat Systems.

----Blue Coat