Page 28 - index

Protecting Files, Government Style

Enable Safe, Secure Content Sharing for Government Agencies

by Paul Brubaker, director of government solutions, AirWatch® by VMware®

Mobility is changing the way we do business around the world. With an increased adoption
of smart devices for personal and work use, almost every industry has been rapidly
embracing the digital frontier. One major shift since the adoption of mobility in the enterprise
is the rapid increase in content sharing. Employees are now creating, editing and sharing
content directly from their devices, enabling productivity and communication on an
unprecedented scale. Documents can be maintained on the fly from a smartphone or tablet
and sent to a recipient with a few taps of the finger.

Government organizations are also exploring new ways to share documents securely.
Mobile devices are enabling government agencies to increase collaboration away from the
office and reduce the need for employees to stay in touch face-to-face to pass along
confidential information.

However, mobility brings new challenges to the security landscape, especially with the
incredibly sensitive data government agencies must share to do their jobs. So how can
governments create, edit and share information confidently without risking exposure to
unauthorized sources?

Simple passcodes and device locks are standard fare for keeping information protected on
mobile devices. But government agencies need even more protection. With national security
at risk, governments can use three effective strategies to ramp up their protection to prevent
sensitive data leakage.

Use encryption for end-to-end containerization of data

Encryption is one of the most important components of government mobility security.
Encryption protects information by encoding it in a way that only authorized persons can see
it. This can be used to protect the contents of documents, email attachments and more.
Devices and applications can be configured to encrypt information automatically until an
authorized user verifies their identity.

With government-level containerization solutions available on the market today, encryption
should be standard fare to store, edit and share content, whether it’s on a device, in-transit
to another device or being edited.

Content containerization also offers the benefit of protecting information automatically.
Information is encrypted and decrypted as it is needed, enabling employees to make
changes to documents and save them without going through an extra step. This ensures
encryption is always functioning, whether employees realize it or not.

28 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – July 2014 Edition
Copyright © Cyber Defense Magazine, All rights reserved worldwide