Enabling Mobility in Enterprise Security Management

Abstract

The increasing demand for and the wide adoption of mobile technologies have been witnessed in enterprise information technology (IT) environments in recent years. However, there exist few solutions to address the applicability of mobile technologies or devices in enterprise security management (ESM). In this paper we present an approach to enabling mobility in ESM, whereby security administrators can manage various types of enterprise security polices using mobile devices in order to effectively monitor and defend their trusted domains, which are constantly under attacks. Specifically, we describe a security architecture for designing and implementing a mobile-enabled solution for ESM through which various benefits such as the backup of important security policies or credentials, offline administration, immediate response, and monitoring can be achieved. We also discuss our approach in the context of the security framework development guideline provided by the ISO 17799 code of practice for information security management (2000).