Over the past months, Hillary Clinton’s use of her personal email account for official business has raised many questions, from the security of classified information to weak policy enforcement.
But whatever the questions are, the most important one to ask is: what can organizations take away from this with regards to securing their users and devices?
Here are three critical lessons that James Chia, Managing Director, South East Asia, Aruba Networks has identified:
1. Mobile user behavior is changing. With the ubiquity of public cloud services and mobile devices, users now have their own working styles, like how Clinton chose to work from her personal device instead of a government-issued one. Today, professional and personal lines are blurring. Users can move confidential data between corporate boundaries and third-party servers or hardware with just a few clicks. Organizations must find a way to monitor and regulate this.
2. Small user habits can lead to big issues. Acts like using a private email account may seem trivial, as they can be easily concealed and have no immediate consequences. But in Clinton’s case, it caused her some complications. This shows that a small habitual pattern may result in more severe outcomes over the long run.
3. The need for a no-nonsense approach to mobile security. Policies are put in place for a reason. They protect the interests of the company and customers. Users that attempt to break or straddle the guidelines do so at great risk. And with tightening regulations in several industries such as banking, the need for security compliance has never been greater. A good security strategy should have the power to set rules which are strictly applied, regardless of who the users are.
To prevent such issues, organizations can adopt a mobile security framework that can protect devices, users and enterprise applications and data. To start off, they can leverage the philosophy of Adaptive Trust for secure mobility.
Designed by Aruba Networks, Adaptive Trust is an approach for our customers to secure all components within the enterprise by making context-based decisions, ensuring device compliance and securing workflows. It allows businesses to understand their mobile users’ behavior better to implement accurate security policies that span the entire infrastructure. In the end, smarter decisions are made regarding how users and devices interact, and the respective privileges that are granted.
Across organizations, we need to be more vigilant about the integrity of our mobile strategy. Awareness is the first important step to curing any ill. Let this political incident be a reminder for us all.
If you’re interested in Adaptive Trust, you can find out more here.