Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: smart phones/mobile devices
From: Matthew Gracie <graciem () CANISIUS EDU>
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 09:38:32 -0500
Youngquist, Jason R. wrote:
With the increase in smart phones over the last few years (ie. iphones, blackberries, droids, etc) for both professional and personal use, how are other organizations addressing the threat of mobile devices? For example, a person may use their personal smart phone to check their personal email and work email, (which may/may not have sensitive information) and then the phone is lost/stolen. Also, more applications are becoming “web app” enabled and can be accessible from a smart phone. Viruses/malware haven’t been as prevalent on smart phones (compared to Windows OS) but the threat still exists. Do you suggest/require that anti-virus software be installed on mobile phones? What requiring a password to unlock the phone, or requiring encryption technology? Finally, if you have a smart phone policy, do you differentiate between personal phones and phones owned by the organization but used by faculty/staff members?
Like many schools, I'm sure, we were blindsided by smartphones -- it was one of those items that departments went out and started buying on their own, and then showed up at IT's doorstep looking for support. We've started trying to get a handle on things, but there are still a lot of "grey areas" that we're working through. I'm looking forward to seeing the other responses to this thread. Here's our freshly-minted mobile device policy. I hope you find something useful in there. http://www.canisius.edu/images/userImages/itsweb/Page_9816/mobiledevicepolicy.pdf -- Matt Gracie (716) 888-8378 Information Security Administrator graciem () canisius edu Canisius College ITS Buffalo, NY http://www2.canisius.edu/~graciem/graciem_public_key.gpg
Current thread:
- smart phones/mobile devices Youngquist, Jason R. (Mar 03)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: smart phones/mobile devices Matthew Gracie (Mar 03)
- Re: smart phones/mobile devices Melissa Muth (Mar 05)