Smartphone stocking stuffers make IT departments suffer

This holiday season, Trust Digital, a provider of enterprise smartphone security management software, has offered Enterprise IT department's helpful tips to prepare and protect the corporate network without being viewed as the holiday grinch.

With the gift giving time upon us, lots of workers who think they've been very good will want to use their slick new mobile devices on the job.

This year, more smartphones will be sold for the holidays than ever before. Worldwide smartphone sales now exceed laptop sales according to a new research report from In-Stat. The market research firm forecasts smartphone sales to grow by more than 30% annually over the next five years.

At the same time, personal smartphones are increasingly serving double duty as work phones. As IT managers come back to work after the New Year, their holiday cheer will be tested by waves of new smartphones trying to access the corporate network.

"Black Friday marks the start of the holiday shopping season and the frenzy is around the latest and greatest mobile devices. Increasingly they are being used, and viewed as, the $79 PC," said Dan Dearing, vice president of product management and marketing at Trust Digital. "IT administrators could have a big headache on their hands as these devices try to access the network if there's not an infrastructure in place to create secure policies, protect company data and block unwanted users."

Here are the top 5 tips to manage and secure an enterprise network and the holidays' coolest devices.

1. Knows when you are sleeping; knows when you're awake.

• Know who is accessing your network by creating a policy-based security management system to address the advanced security needs of your mobile applications and devices.

2. Making a list.

• Create a list of employees authorized to use devices and access points of the network.

3. Checking it twice.

• Audit devices through a single console to ensure that policies are being enforced on authorized devices.

4. Better watch out.

• Enforce security policies on user smartphones and at the edge of your network. Be prepared to offer two-factor user authentication, data-at-rest encryption, resource controls, device firewall, IP proxy, SMS blocking, application controls and image management.

5. You better not cry, you better not pout.

• Give employees their choice of smartphone and provide them with help desk assistance so they can effectively manage mobile needs for increased productivity.