Bring your own device (BYOD) and the migration of computing from the desktop to the smartphone and tablet has been a boon for business—but it also has introduced a security hole that puts companies at substantial risk.

The security threats introduced by mobility include data loss from devices that are misplaced or stolen, rooted or hacked devices that expose the device and the corporate data on it to malicious code and theft, and a multitude of new vectors for hacking. And, of course, more ways for viruses and malware to enter into the work network.

“When deploying a corporate mobile strategy, organizations need to address mobile security strategy needs properly in order to ensure that all mobile security components work with and not against user access,” noted a recent white paper by Technology Evaluation Centers.

“Security managers need to approach the problem to find the level of ‘acceptable risk’ for access to sensitive information through mobile devices, and an easier way to configure and control it in a single instance as much as possible,” the paper concluded. “They also need to define the right policies and deploy the necessary solutions to configure responsibilities and define which level of risk can be taken and who is authorized to take it, if necessary.”

This aims at providing adaptive security measures that are transparent to the user without creating unnecessary limits, while establishing a risk schema that defines where and when a risk is acceptable and who is authorized to accept it.

That’s why SAP (News - Alert), a leader in business software, has developed SAP Afaria Cloud, a mobile management solution that helps ensure that employee devices are secured, adhere to corporate IT policies, and are provisioned properly. SAP Afaria Cloud delivers mobile app and management lifecycle and comes complete with third-party integration and integrated analytics, ensuring that the mobile security threat is properly managed.

On Wednesday, Sept. 25, SAP and TMCnet will host a free webinar that discusses SAP’s approach to enterprise mobility management and what businesses need to know to secure corporate data.

The webinar will talk about how to establish granular mobile policies, including the provisioning of mobile apps, content and devices based on corporate-established user requirements by role, region or department.

It also will discuss how to capitalize on the economies of scale of the real-time Amazon S3 environment to help restore lost or stolen mobile devices in the enterprise, including protection from devices that have been jail-broken or rooted, as well as how to quickly scale a secured mobile workforce from 100 to over 200,000 or more using SAP Afaria Cloud running on AWS, including the management of Enterprise ActiveSync, Active Directory and specific mobile application permissions.

The webinar takes place at 11 a.m. EDT. Those interested in registering for the free webinar can enroll here.