Mobile device management for Office 365

mdm for office 365

Microsoft is expanding its built-in mobile device management (MDM) features built for Office 365.

Small businesses tend to adopt a BYOD (bring your own device) policy to mobile devices when granting email and in-house business information to its employees. However, as this article explains, giving employees wider access to business IT networks poses serious data protection and security risks.

The new tools enable network administrators to selectively restrict senstitive business information so that in the event of, for instance, a temporary loss emails and Word docs can be wiped from a mobile device while leaving an end user’s personal data and apps in place.

Large businesses use applications like Microsoft Intune to automate deployments and management of large mobile device fleets. Office 365 includes provisions for basic device management in its business and enterprise Office 365 services. In early 2015, these tools are being expanded to include:

  • configurable security policies on devices that connect to Office 365 to ensure that Office 365 business email and documents are synchronized only on phones and tablets that are managed by your company. For instance, whereas employees could potentially connect multiple devices including home PCs to services, Office 365 administrators can manage which devices a user can authenticate.
  • configurable security policies such as device level pin lock and jailbreak detection on devices to help prevent unauthorized users from accessing corporate email and data when a device is misplaced, lost or stolen.
  • remove Office 365 corporate data from authenticated devices when an employee leaves an organization, while leaving their personal data, photos and apps intact.

MDM for Office 365 is built directly into the productivity apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, etc., and mobile device policies can be managed with MDM within the Office 365 administration portal using the Office 365 user interface and wizard-based workflows. MDM generates ueful management reports detailing information about connected devices, including automated Wi-Fi, VPN and email profiles. Intune also provides bulk tools for pre-configuring large scale application delpoyment and can provide users with a self-service portal where they can enroll their own devices and install corporate apps.

Exchange Email – mobile device management

From Sept 25th, ComStat is providing management services for users and organisations who need help managing business information on mobile devices like laptops, tablets, and mobile phones.

While users increasingly connect to organizational data using multiple devices, the pace for keeping up with the protection of sensitive business and personal information has fallen behind that curve. Losing a mobile phone is one thing. Loss or theft of a mobile phone which holds business data is a potentially serious issue, and one which can put entities in breach of data protection laws.

exchange mdm

ComStat’s mobile device management services enable us to manage an organisation’s mobile “fleet” in a number of ways:

1. Controlling access to services by equipment brand, or model, or user
2. Implementing selective or global PIN access to mobile devices
3. Temporary restrictions to services from mobile devices
4. Wiping all information associated with user accounts.

For instance, if Alex loses a mobile phone in Frankfurt, he can probably get the SIM stopped rapidly. However, without management tools of some kind in place, whoever has custody of the phone has potential access to everything on Alex’ desktop at work. On notofication of loss, ComStat engineers can invoke any of the techniques above to restrict or stop all services associated with Alex’ account instantly.

The issue of “mobile” data protection is important for another reason. Entities who give you or your organisation access to their personal data expect a duty of care requiring the “custodian” to use the data for the purposes it wa given and to protect it. In cases where mobile devices are lost, information which at law belongs to your customers and which falls into someone else’s hands may leave you or your organisation with reputational and potentially legal liability.

Please contact us for more information about data loss protection and mobile device management services.

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