UPDATED 17:10 EDT / NOVEMBER 20 2023

SECURITY

Empowering SMEs in the age of mobile security: BT Group and Ivanti weigh in

Amid what many refer to as an inflection point in the mobile world, there’s no shortage of uncertainty in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

Though that leaves a fair bit of ambiguity, it also leaves some subjects to get excited about as many shift from being mobile-first to being mobile-only, according to Sally Fuller (pictured, left), product director of mobile and mobile unified communications at BT Group PLC.

“How do we help you do your task using the mobile services?” she asked. “Meanwhile, what we’re trying to do is make sure that the really, really big and important ones, they’re embedded in our network, and the rest of them are securely enabled into that mobile endpoint so that we can help our customers have a really effortless experience and really do what they need to do — empower their people to do their jobs.”

Fuller and Srinivas Mukkamala (right), chief product officer at Ivanti Software Inc.spoke with industry analysts Dave Vellante and Lisa Martin earlier this year, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the challenges present in the industry and the partnership between the two companies. (* Disclosure below.)

Adapting to threats

Though small and medium-sized enterprises may recognize that security is essential, many don’t have dedicated teams working on this issue, with their teams focused on other tasks, such as serving customers or managing cash flow. But that can pose a risk should these SMEs be caught off guard, especially if they fall prey to phishing or ransomware, according to Fuller.

“You can’t worry about everything, but what do we need most to protect and help you on so that you’re not part of something that is going to damage your business irreparably?” Fuller said.

BT and Ivanti have been working in partnership on these issues for around a decade, with sales teams and technical teams working “hand-in-hand” to solve problems, according to Fuller. As an example of this, Fuller and Mukkamala launched Ivanti SME Secure UEM, which was included free of charge for SME customers. 

But what about one of the biggest security challenges out there — bad user behavior? It’s the last mile that is always the issue, with the users being the weakest, according to Mukkamala.

“Now, we are talking about generative AI, the next weakest link, because we want to feed everything to that,” he said. “What will that do to us? So, you’re starting to see the attack vector go.”

What needs to take place next is to educate every user within an organization to take security seriously, according to Mukkamala. That doesn’t mean that people within organizations currently don’t take security seriously. But it might mean that people within organizations don’t have the proper awareness to do so.

“With data, you can harm people if you don’t pay attention to it. You can create unnecessary consequences. And we need to bring that assurance all the way back,” Mukkamala said. “Data is something you’ve got to be careful with, and there’ll be consequences if you don’t use it the right way.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Sally Fuller and Srinivas Mukkamala:

(* Disclosure: Ivanti Software Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Ivanti nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE

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