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Sophos Advances Mobile Device Management for Android Environments

February 6, 2013 9:07 by anila

Dubai, UAE – February 05, 2013 – Sophos today announced the latest version of its award-winning mobile device management (MDM) solution, Sophos Mobile Control 3.0, which is offered both on-premise and as-a-service. This version includes support for Samsung SAFE™ devices, granting tighter control over how devices are used and making BYOD (bring your own device) policies easier to define and enforce. It also provides integration with Sophos Mobile Security 2.0, which protects Android smartphones and tablets from malicious apps.

Bringing Android into the Organization

According to Gartner’s “Market Share: Mobile Phones by Region and Country, 3Q12[i]” report, Android’s smartphone sales to end users by operating systems jumped to 72.4 percent in Q3 2012.  But as more Android owners have begun using their personal devices for work purposes, many organizations have had to adapt due to the lack of security controls on these devices and because Androids are vulnerable to and targeted by malware.

The newest version of Sophos Mobile Control integrates with Sophos Mobile Security, providing enhanced security for Androids. With Sophos Mobile Control, organizations can feel comfortable about embracing Android—all apps and external media are scanned for malware, any findings are centrally reported, and mitigation actions are automatically initiated as defined in the companies’ compliance settings.

Adding Web Security for Mobile

In combination with Sophos Mobile Control, Sophos Mobile Security now includes web security, extending URL filtering capabilities to Android devices. With the web security feature, any URL a user attempts to access is first verified against SophosLabs’ hosted database for reputation and malware. When malicious content or phishing sites are discovered, the user will be warned and redirected to a safe site.

Supporting Samsung SAFE Devices

Sophos Mobile Control includes support for Samsung SAFE (Samsung for Enterprises), which provides extended manageability for Android devices and supports enterprise features, such as VPN, WiFi and Microsoft Exchange configuration, for all Samsung SAFE devices.

Providing Per-User Protection

Managing an organization’s mobile device management licenses in BYOD environments can be difficult and time consuming, as the number of devices being used by each employee can fluctuate throughout the year. As part of this release, Sophos now offers Sophos Mobile Control as a per-user based license, simplifying license management for IT departments. When deployed as part of Sophos’ End User Protection license, Sophos Mobile Control provides security for all devices on the network in a single per-user license for mobile and endpoint protection.

“We decided to deploy Sophos Mobile Control as we were looking for a secure solution that works independent of the operating system. That’s what we found with Sophos Mobile Control. In addition, the great support is included at no extra cost,” said Christian Schulze, IT Administration and Infrastructure, Volksbank eG Braunschweig Wolfsburg.

“More organizations are struggling with how to implement a BYOD policy.  As Android’s market share continues its ascent, and threats targeting Android continue to appear, it’s clear that anti-malware needs to be part of that policy,” said John Shaw, vice president, product management, Sophos. “The latest version of Sophos Mobile Control makes it even simpler for IT teams to implement mobile device management, including built-in anti-malware, making secure BYOD possible for organizations of all sizes.”

For more information about Sophos mobile products, and the EndUser Protection license, visit the Sophos website.

About Sophos

More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos’ complete security solutions as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Simple to deploy, manage, and use, Sophos’ award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile and network security solutions are backed by SophosLabs – a global network of threat intelligence centers.

 

Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.