With BYOD continuing to grow and mobility usage surging, organizations are facing an assortment of security and management issues. Since these devices are not company-owned, the company does not have the right to put any data security policies on it, so it has to worry about trying to ensure strong passwords, data encryption and the possibility of being hacked on poorly secured devices.

To appease the worries of such companies, Beachhead Solutions, a provider of encryption and managed security solutions on mobile devices, has developed the first Web-based console that enables companies to control encyption and access to iOS/Android (News - Alert) devices, Macs, PCs and USB storage drives from a single, unified, cloud-based management pane. The SimplySecure Management System is especially designed for BYOD and as an easy-to-use solution for the IT department. The Web-console allows companies to remotely secure mobile devices while promoting the utmost employee productivity.

But, just how important is encryption? According to Jeff Rubin, VP of Strategy and Business Development for Beachhead Solutions, encryption is the strongest defense known when at-rest data, such as data stored on a mobile device or PC, is in the hands of someone lacking the authorization to read the information.

“Without the ‘encryption key,’ all data is gibberish. Typically, a password or passcode unlocks that data for the rightful user,” adds Rubin. “Beyond excellent security, numerous federal and state laws, as well as industry standards, require encryption be in place to protect Personally Identifiable Information (e.g., social security numbers, addresses, maiden names), or disclosure of the loss, fines and sanctions will follow.”

Image via Beachhead

The SimplySecure Management System features include: 

• Customizable reports of status and device risks/conditions
• Remote enforcement of password and security policy
• Full encryption of all sensitive data on the devices
• Immediate data access elimination with instant, administrator-enabled remote restoration
• Complete data wipe capability when devices are stolen
• Broad range of both administrator-enabled and automatic security responses to threat conditions

“The cloud feature is especially useful for mobile devices (including BYOD) because connectivity levels are very high,” says Rubin.  “Data stored in the cloud, or policy commands driven from the cloud, can easily be brought to the device regardless of its physical location.  In addition, smaller companies that lack the money, desire, scale or expertise to manage infrastructure applications such as security and device management can gain access to these advanced tools without significant investment by using a cloud solution rather than a purchased and maintained on-premise tool.”

Beachhead’s patented technology is different from other solutions that are available on the market because it is focused on delivering data quarantine, which means having a way to immediately, remotely remove access to data when a threat condition is detected, and be able to restore that access once the threat has passed.

Beachhead also has a patented process for triggering this protection independently – that is, the device senses it is in a risk condition and defends itself without communication from a host server. “Other security providers may offer a communication-dependent, server-activated “kill switch” to eliminate access in other ways such as simply wiping data,” says Rubin. “Importantly, these approaches also generally require a more time-consuming and painful restoration such as restore from backup, or via a long password string, or with a physical device (fob).”

SimplySecure is a very useful solution, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses, which lack the infrastructure, scale, expertise or desire to control security and accounting for a company-owned and BYOD mobile devices. “Therefore, nearly every industry – nearly every company – needs to understand where its data resides and have a method to control its accessibility and eliminate the chance of its misuse,” says Rubin. “SimplySecure does just that, and it’s easy to install and use.”

For more information on how an organization can leverage SimplySecure, visit Beachhead’s website .