BYOD without Worry Thanks to GFI LanGuard®

One of the big buzz words in IT for the past several years has been BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). BYOD scenarios are starting to crop up everywhere, from small businesses all the way up to federal government agencies. One of the biggest challenges SysAdmins, security professionals and CIOs all face is how to secure these devices.

One trend that is growing in popularity involves the approach of “securing the data, not the device”. While that sounds great and should definitely be a part of your security strategy, if you think you can get away with securing your data while ignoring all those devices, you are only a breaking news story away from a very embarrassing situation. Defense in-depth strategies require you to secure more than just the data, and the devices your users use are a key component, whether you paid for them or they did.

GFI LanGuard for years has been the SysAdmin’s choice tool for conducting vulnerability assessments of their networks and the devices that connect to them. While this has traditionally included the servers and workstations that SysAdmins have control over, the new GFI LanGuard 2014 has some great new capabilities in store for SysAdmins that dovetail very nicely with BYOD.

GFI LanGuard 2014 brings security vulnerability assessment capabilities for BYOD devices, including mobile phones and tablets. GFI LanGuard can scan popular mobile device platforms including iOS devices without needing an agent, to identify and help you to secure mobile devices. SysAdmins can use GFI LanGuard 2014 to maintain a current inventory of mobile devices, including model, operating system version, IMEI, owner, connection history, known security issues, and available updates. With support for iOS, Windows Phone, and Google Android, all the major mobile device platforms are covered.

Using GFI LanGuard 2014, SysAdmins can ensure that BYOD devices are running the most up to date firmware versions and are free from other vulnerabilities that could be leveraged by an attacker to gain unauthorized access to the device or data contained on the device, or to use a BYOD device to gain access to the network or data on it.

SysAdmins will also be able to leverage the reporting capabilities with mobile devices to understand and report on the actual mobile device usage on their system. For companies that want to understand how users are embracing and using BYOD, or who want to be able to charge back business units for their usage, reporting on actual usage is critical.

For companies looking to adopt pro-BYOD policies, GFI LanGuard is the way to help secure those devices and better protect the data and network. As a part of your defense in depth strategy, ensuring that devices are secure is a critical part of the process to protect your users, your data and your customers from threats. GFI LanGuard 2014 will be a key component of your security and will enable you to embrace BYOD without worry.