The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/4983
www.iltanet.org 22 Peer to Peer With the proliferation of smartphones in law firms, how can we secure our networks? I Implementing a comprehensive and secure mobile management strategy has become a top priority for today's law firms. Lawyers rely on their smartphones for instant access to information — whether they are in or out of the office. Some lawyers have ditched their laptops in favor of smartphones as their primary communication device. And while smartphones provide an increase in productivity, many law firms are cutting back on business-issued devices to keep afloat during this economic downturn. As a result, employees are bringing their personal smartphones into the workplace. This widespread "consumerization" of smartphones inside law firms presents major security challenges for IT teams. When employees demand access to services such as e-mail, business applications and corporate data from their personal smartphones, the security implications can be staggering. With more confidential and sensitive information finding its way onto smartphones, mobile security solutions have become a must-have for law firms. Without proper IT management, the integration of personal devices in the workplace could put a company's network and proprietary data at serious risk from potential exposure to malware and spyware. In addition, lost or stolen devices could lead to loss of company trade secrets and other sensitive data, including identity theft. There are several preventative steps companies can take to guard against security breaches. Corporate policies that explicitly prohibit users from installing applications that are not approved should be created and enforced via mobile security settings (both the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and Microsoft's ActiveSync platform have numerous security policies that can be applied to a device). The exponential increase of smartphone usage is driving the need for management tools that enable IT to audit devices for third-party applications. A rogue application could cause a security threat by pulling sensitive data from the network. Even with strict corporate policies, users could unknowingly download applications that introduce a security risk to the rest of the corporate network. By understanding which applications are installed and running, enterprise IT can avoid potential security and compliance risks from rogue applications, while protecting the health of their mobile devices. Mobility is transforming the legal industry and opening new doors for growth. As this trend continues, security will become even more critical to ensuring the success of a mobile deployment across the enterprise. ILTA — ahmed datoo, zenprise W hile many law firms were early adopters of the first cell phones, and then the more functional smartphones, they have also been among the first to realize that the productivity promises of mobile devices are often negated by technological limitations or management burdens. As partners and associates look to leverage a growing variety of mobile devices and platforms, management is seeing new cracks in its IT mobility infrastructure that threaten to offset the additional productivity that mobility enables. Before IT allows any more BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm Pre or other smartphone to be added to the network, firms need to implement strategies, policies and solutions to manage these diverse mobile platforms. Many of these new smartphones lack the stringent security and compliance controls applied to laptops and other repositories of non-public information. Indeed, ASK THE VEndOR