Symantec Mobile Management Suite Plugs Email Data Leaks

Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) is taking on email client security, identified by the company as the biggest target for data leaks, with a new email solution for iOS and Android devices that access corporate email. The release, part of the Symantec Mobile Management Suite, aims to secure confidential data, provide a single sign-on user experience and SSL with URL whitelisting to protect data in motion.  Symantec Senior Vice President of Mobility Fran Rosch provided the details in this blog post last week, along with a results from the company’s new Internet Security Threat Report.  Here’s what you need to know.

Symantec’s most recent Internet Security Threat Report revealed a 58 percent increase in mobile threats targeting BYOD, almost a third designed to steal information. With that in mind, Symantec announced updates to its mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) solutions at Vision 2013 conference last week in Las Vegas.  (Be sure to check out coverage at The VAR Guy, too.) The announcements follow Symantec’s recent integration of MDM and MAM into single product and console.

The most recent updates to Symantec Mobile Management Suite include the following:

• Secure email included as part of the suite — The new email client is available for both iOS and Android platforms, designed to protect users’ email, calendar, address book and to-do lists. MSPs can configure multiple policies specific to individual groups of users, including Exchange server and user names, passcode requirements, SSL requirements, copy and paste restrictions, widget controls, and synchronization and attachment size limits;
• Single sign-on across wrapped apps — End users are only required to login once for access across multiple wrapped apps. Designating time allowances for a single sign-on session is available for administrators; and
• SSL policing and URL whitelisting for secure app connections — SSL policing on app-level policies will allow data in motion to be encrypted and deliver to the server or service preconfigured by the business.

“Symantec doesn’t believe in ‘balancing’ the productivity and flexibility needs of users against the data protection requirements of IT, or compromising on either charter; both must be executed to the highest degree,” Rosch said in his blog post. “This is the secure coexistence of professional and personal that Symantec is delivering, all through a single, integrated solution.”