Trend Micro aims to secure consumer mobile devices for enterprises

Security firm Trend Micro has announced an enterprise mobile management product to help organisations integrate consumer devices into an enterprise environment in a secure way.

A recent survey by the UK Corporate IT Forum found that IT directors are increasingly deploying tablet devices, mainly in response to employ demand.

Mobile Security 7 is designed to enable businesses to tap into the cost and productivity benefits of allowing employees to use their own devices at work by mitigating the associated security, data protection and device management risks.

As personal and professional lives become more intertwined, an increasing number of employees are using their own tablets, smartphones and PCs for work.

Trend Micro says Mobile Security 7 extends protection beyond traditional PCs to secure data on a wide range of consumer-grade mobile devices, such as Android devices, iPhones and iPads.

With threat prevention, data protection and mobile device management under a single point of control, Trend Micro says the product enables organisations to protect data, limit data loss incidents and reduce the operational costs of managing employee-owned mobile devices.

"The consumerisation of IT carries with it a unique blend of strategic and operational challenges. The lack of a planned approach to consumerisation creates security risk, financial exposure and a management nightmare for IT," said Rik Ferguson, director of security and research at Trend Micro.

Despite these risks, he says, consumerisation also represents a great opportunity for organisations of all sizes to drive increases in productivity, business agility and customer and employee satisfaction.

"With Mobile Security 7, IT personnel can begin to meet these challenges and allow their companies to take full advantage of the benefits from consumerisation," said Ferguson.

Mobile Security 7 is to be available in the UK from 1 August from £33 to £40 per seat.