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BOSTON, MA – December 19, 2011 – IT security and data protection company Sophos today announced Sophos Mobile Control 2.0, the latest version of its award-winning mobile device management solution, which ensures customers have complete protection everywhere and on any device. Sophos Mobile Control supports a variety of mobile devices and operating systems such as Apple iPhones and iPads, including the latest iOS5 release, Google Android phones and tablets, Windows Mobile devices and RIM BlackBerry—managing all of these from one web-based console.

Mobile Everywhere

The market for smart phones and tablets continues to accelerate. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker, worldwide media tablet shipments rose 303.8 percent year over year in the second calendar quarter of 2011 (2Q11) to 13.6 million units. And according to research from Gartner, titled “Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2012 and Beyond: Control Slips Away (ID # G00226767),” by 2016, at least 50% of enterprise email users will rely primarily on a browser, tablet or mobile client, instead of a desktop client.

With the continued proliferation of mobile devices, many people are utilizing their personal devices for work as well. Nearly three quarters of companies allow employee-owned smart phones and/or tablets to be used at work, based on Aberdeen data from 2011. A quarter give employees a white list of allowed devices, while almost half let employees use any device.  Accessing sensitive data on these devices is causing an array of security and compliance issues for businesses and their IT staffs, which are now tasked with enabling the use of consumer devices, developing new mobile applications for business use while maintaining consistent policies and device compliance across all employees.

Mobile Device Management Made Less Complex

Sophos Mobile Control is designed specifically for IT administrators to simply and quickly secure, monitor and control smart phones and other personal mobile devices. Enhancements incorporated into this latest version include:

•  Enterprise App Store: brings the look and feel of a typical app store, but allows IT administrators to configure, require or recommend apps to download. This feature also enables administrators to deploy company-specific apps that are not published in the Apple App Store or the Google Market.
• Compliance Enforcement: allows IT administrators to set specific rules that execute consistent policies from device to device, including such actions as denying un-encrypted devices or blacklisting specific applications. This new feature logs all compliance issues on a web-based dashboard that permits the administrator to see all non-compliant devices, details of the violations and actions required to remediate the issue. Non-compliant devices can be automatically disabled from receiving further access to corporate data.
• Self Service Portal: further eases the burden on IT. After registering an employee device, users are able to access features such as lock mobile devices, wipe devices, locate devices and reset passwords. With the self-service portal, employees are now able to resolve most problems on their own without exhausting IT resources.

“Being able to choose from a variety of smart phones and tablet devices is very appealing to today’s consumer, but as more consumers utilize one device for both personal and business use, it brings with it added security risks, especially in the event that the device gets lost or stolen, and the owner uses neither a pin nor a password,” said Björn Stenmanns, IT-Services and manager of Data Center Operations, Socura. “Sophos Mobile Control removes that risk, thanks to its ability to remotely locate, lock and wipe devices, thereby allaying our IT concerns. And because Sophos Mobile Control allows us to manage today’s diversity of mobile devices in one central management tool, our IT staff can focus on myriad other tasks.”

“We understand that businesses are increasingly mobile and their workforce is adding an extra layer of complexity,” said Matthias Pankert, vice president of Product Management, Mobile Data Protection, Sophos. “With the enhancements within Sophos Mobile Control, we are aiming to streamline and simplify device and data protection, while giving employees the flexibility they want, and IT departments the protection they need.”