Security of devices on the corporate network

In the broadest possible terms, a mobile application is designed, developed, and delivered by a business to one of two fundamentally different user communities:

Mobile applications for customers of a business are typically delivered to mobile devices over the internet, and the applications connect back to business services over the internet. Connections between mobile devices and the business, and the data that is exchanged between them, may or may not be secure.

By contrast, mobile applications for use by employees of the business are typically delivered over the corporate intranet, connect to private services on the corporate intranet, and exchange business confidential or sensitive data. The employee's mobile device becomes part of the corporate intranet; however, it also remains logically connected to the public internet and physically portable outside the walls of the business.

The likelihood of a device, or the information that it contains being lost, stolen, or hacked might be no different between these two groups of users. Howerver, the value of business proprietary applications and data, and the damage that results from its loss or disclosure, can be high. It is prudent to implement controls to protect the information assets of the business.

For example, can you:

For information about these and other measures that are designed to help protect mobile devices that are used by employees, see IBM® Endpoint Manager for Mobile Devices/.


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