IBM has announced a new service to help businesses secure the exploding number of mobile devices with access to corporate data. The new IBM Hosted Mobile Device Security Management service extends the company's existing mobility portfolio to include a security application for smartphones and tablets, along with managed services including policy management and user compliance monitoring. 

The service helps organizations protect against data loss and other risks caused by device theft, unauthorized access, malware, spyware, and inappropriate applications. It is designed to help mitigate security risks associated with the increasing number of employee-owned and corporate-liable mobile devices accessing sensitive business data. Delivered as a hosted, managed service, clients can put these controls into action without the need to deploy and manage systems or to make a major investment of in-house personnel and technology. 

Increasingly, businesses want to provide employees the option of using a personal device as a way to reduce cost and allow them to work wherever or whenever they need to, but doing so requires diligence in protecting corporate data. In this era of "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD), with employees using their own mobile devices for business and personal activity, organizations are now tasked with supporting the new social, virtual, and mobile employee and the applications they access. With mobile threats on the rise, complex IT environments, security risks, maintaining policies, and helping companies control cost are top of mind concerns for many CIOs and security and risk professionals. 

With this new service, IBM provides the right security controls and ongoing monitoring for each device as a managed service, allowing IT departments to support a broad range of personal devices. Unlike other services focused on device management or unmanaged technology, IBM is focused on the protection of the device, regardless of the business applications used by employees today or in the future. 

Capabilities in the new mobile device security management service include: 

• Configuring employee devices to comply with security policies and actively monitoring to help ensure compliance over time
• Securing data in the event that a device is lost or stolen
• Helping to find a lost or stolen device - wherever it is
• Protecting against spyware and viruses
• Detecting and removing malicious and unapproved applications
• Monitoring and tracking user activity
• Enabling more secure connectivity

"The BYOD trend creates real opportunity for employees to become more productive, but it also carries risk unless it is managed properly," said Marisa Viveros, vice president, IBM Security Services. "The new service from IBM helps organizations protect their enterprise data while allowing employees to have the flexibility needed for today's work environment." 

The IBM Hosted Mobile Device Security Management service coupled with our strong data loss prevention expertise assists clients in securing access, data, and applications. It also further enhances IBM's broad portfolio of mobile solutions for enterprise clients. IBM's managed security services support leading third-party technologies in addition to its own. The company is working with Juniper Networks on this mobile security service for the underlying protection and device management technology for leading platforms such as Apple iOS, Google Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile through the Juniper Networks Junos Pulse Mobile Security Suite.

IBM operates the world's broadest security research and development organization, comprising nine security operations centers, nine IBM Research centers, 11 software security development labs and an Institute for Advanced Security, with chapters in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. It employs thousands of security experts globally such as security operations analysts, consultants, sales and tech specialists, and strategic outsourcing delivery professionals. IBM monitors 13 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries and holds 3,000 security patents. IBM has been in the security business for nearly 50 years dating back to the security innovation in its mainframe systems.