How to secure and protect mobile devices

Today's enterprises are quickly becoming mobile wireless hubs of communications--everyone's got a cell, more are asking for a personal data device, and the wish list is likely to keep growing given emerging technologies. All that equates to increasing security issues and network threats. But IT leaders can make some headway toward protecting data, devices and networks by taking a multi-pronged approach. The first step is a good plan and policy strategy, outlining what users need to do, what IT's security role is and how the organization, as a business, uses mobile tools and solutions. Then it's time to take a good look at what vendors are offering in security measures to determine the best solution to bring in.

Security vendor PGP and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) are collaborating on a new email security program that will provide encryption, digital signature capability and decryption for the BlackBerry device. Grabbing a good vendor solution is just one of many measures IT leaders should take as internal security work is still very necessary, according to industry experts. While it may seem dull, educating users on why it's critical not to lose a device is extremely valuable toward data security efforts. According to one research firm, users left 85,000 cell phones and more than 20,000 PDAs and Pocket PCs in Chicago taxis alone during the past half year. That's a lot of lost data and network access.

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read this article at InformationWeek