Top 5 Reasons to Archive

Top 5 Reasons to Archive

Mobile Communications

Introduction
By the end of 2013 the number of connected mobile devices will exceed the population of the earth! Tablets and smartphones are changing the way users in your organization get information and collaborate. Employees are happier and more productive when they’re given mobile corporate access. Businesses that go mobile gain competitive advantage and drive top-line growth. With the increase in usage of mobile devices organizations need to be prepared for the risks associated with mobile communications. To mitigate these risks, ensure proper use, and protect from future litigation it is imperative that organizations archive their mobile communications. Here are the top reasons for mobile archiving:

I. A rapid increase in data being created by mobile devices

II. Employee misuse of mobile devices

III. Organizational data leakage

IV. Burden of Regulation Compliance

V. Policy Enforcement
 

Introduction

I. A rapid increase in data being created by mobile devices

Here are some facts that underline that the importance of mobile devices is growing at an incredible speed:

•Average smartphone usage grew 81 percent in 2012. The average amount of traffic per smartphone in 2012 was 342 MB per month, up from 189 MB per month in 2011.

•Global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent in 2012. Global mobile data traffic reached 885 petabytes per month at the end of 2012, up from 520 petabytes per month at the end of 2011.

•By the end of 2013, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth. By 2017 there will be nearly 1.4 mobile devices per capita. There will be more than 10 billion mobile-connected devices in 2017,

including machine-to-machine (M2M) modules exceeding the world's population at that time (7.6 billion).

II. Employee misuse of mobile devices

Mobile devices have blurred the line between work and personal life. It has become more commonplace for an employee to use the same device for both personal and corporate use. This mixed usage can cause sticky situations, as organizations may be less able to manage their content. An employee could easily:

• Share sensitive or confidential information

• Participate in inappropriate, harmful, or harassing communications

 This misuse of personally-owned or corporate-owned devices will cause damage to your organization. Organizations must archive mobile communications to avoid these pitfalls and ensure that they are protected.


III. Organizational Data Leakage

Mobile devices are increasingly becoming a key security risk for enterprises as employees use their devices to access sensitive company information. However, as the 2011 McAfee and Carnegie Mellon University survey found, most employees are not thinking enough about protecting corporate data when using these devices. Here are a few more findings from the survey.

•One in three employees polled kept sensitive work-related information on their mobile devices.

•Most of the companies reported that their employees do not understand how permissions and other access settings work on their mobile devices.

•63 percent of work-issued mobile devices were being used by employees for personal activities.

•About 40 percent of the companies participating in the survey had experienced the loss or theft of mobile devices and nearly half of those devices contained "business-critical data."

In addition employees use corporate and personal mobile devices for collaboration, whether it is text messaging, email or phone calls. Sensitive or confidential information can easily be shared via these devices. Organizations must have oversight on what employees communicate via these mobile devices.

IV. Burden of Regulation Compliance

The majority of organizations do not archive mobile messaging content, despite its requirement through regulations. Court decisions and other regulations provide guidelines which indicate that this content should be archived. The following examples highlight a number of regulations for mobile messaging archiving and usage.

•USA: FINRA 07-59 states that a firm’s electronic communications, including instant messages and text messages, are subject to overall supervisory review and procedures.

•EU: MiFID – A European Union law that states that all electronic communications in regards to securities orders must be recorded.

•UK: FSA – The United Kingdom published rules requiring firms to record and store relevant communication for six months.

V. Policy Enforcement

Employee mobile device usage brings many benefits, such as increased efficiency and morale, improved communication and collaboration and reduced costs when employees are using their own devices.

The benefits of mobile device usage outweigh the risks; however, organizations must implement policies to mitigate risks. Policies must outline what is and is not appropriate usage of mobile devices. Policies must be clear and employees must be trained on them. By implementing an effective policy an organization is on its way to being protected from mobile device misuse. But policy is not enough. There needs to be a way to enforce policy.

Archiving mobile communications gives organizations oversight of all mobile communications. By easily accessing text messages, multimedia messages and phone call logs, you can quickly see whether employees are complying with your corporate policies. An effective archive of mobile usage gives companies the ability to enforce policies. 

Retain Mobile

Retain Mobile securely archives mobile communications for Android and BlackBerry.
Retain for Android operates through a lightweight app that is installed on each device. This app captures all SMS/MMS, and phone call log data. The captured data is then automatically sent to and stored in your Retain archive in the cloud or on-prem. Retain support als Android versions above 2.2.

When it comes to BlackBerry, Retain archives all mobile communications for BlackBerry Devices via the BlackBerry Enterpise Server (BES). Retain for BES does not require that an app be installed on each BlackBerry device. This is because it pulls data and information directly from the BES Server itself. And Retain for BES archives all data to the Retain unified archive database, where all of the data is easily reviewed, retrieved, discovered and published, on demand.

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