Mobile Security Reality Check

Gartner continues to be worried about mobile devices in the enterprise. (A little history – Gartner built a franchise on helping corporate IT deal with the “shadow IT” threat PCs represented. So high-capability, networked mobile clients look like the second coming.) From CNET this morning:

Virtualization will be a key technology to help companies beef up security on corporate mobile devices, Gartner says.

The technology is predicted to be used to break the ties between a mobile device's hardware and software so that standardized software can be downloaded on any handset or laptop.

This will allow companies to keep a tight security rein on the increasing number of different types of mobile gadgets by making sure that every corporate device adheres to the same consistent security rules, according to the analyst.

But the bad news is that such virtualization tools for mobile devices will not be around until 2012--so businesses need to start bringing in policies in the short term, Gartner said.

The really bad news is that no carrier would allow this – they tightly control what is installed on handsets that run on their networks. At least in the US. In Europe the handset market is not tightly coupled to the voice/data service markets so handset vendors have more latitude in what they can offer.

Of course smartphones (ie Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian) provide more system-level options, but until carriers get out of the handset sales business custom image loads on handsets will remain a dream.