Utimaco advises increased security for mobile device use in the workplace.

TELECOMWORLDWIRE-20 December 2005-Utimaco advises increased security for mobile device use in the workplace(C)1994-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

Data security solutions provider Utimaco has advised IT administrators to increase checks to ensure corporate IT security compliance and restrict the use of privately owned devices in the workplace, due to the number of mobile devices expected to be given as presents this Christmas.

Utimaco said most people that receive items such as smartphones, PDAs, MP3 players and USB sticks will want to take them to work and has urged IT departments to restrict or forbid private use in the workplace. Around 6.5m Apple iPods were sold in the last quarter, equating to over 19 Petabytes of total storage and gigabytes of data can be downloaded in minutes with the use of mobile hard disks.

Utimaco said devices such as iPods and MP3 players are so small that they can copy data from corporate networks virtually undetected. With the export of data comes the risk of internal analytical data being exposed and there is also a chance that malware may gain access to the corporate network via the mobile device.

Utimaco advised IT administrators to use an access rights management system to control notebook and desktop PC ports, or block them from external devices. It has made five administrator tips available at http://www.utimaco.com/toptips.

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