Multi Source Device Policy Management

Abstract

Mobile technology in enterprises is a key enabler to providing their workforces with a seamless digital workspace experience that must secure interactions with enterprise data while maintaining or improving productivity and ensuring privacy. Device management systems are used to administer, manage and monitor devices and their policies (e.g., mobile devices – such as cell phones, laptop computers, tablets, etc., desktop computers, printers, and other devices). With proliferation of usage of mobile apps for various business functions and advancements in technologies around mobile security, there are various other adjacent systems that have evolved like Mobile Threat Defence systems and Application policy managements. In many instances, these systems manage similar settings on the device independently thus leading to conflicting policies being applied on the device. The conflicting policies can make these devices insecure and increase risk of non-compliance with respect to industry standards and government regulations. This paper proposes a methodology to seamlessly manage settings coming from multiple sources and resolve these conflicts using modelling of device management policies and text analytics algorithms. The paper also details the experimentation and results based on the tests executed for conflicts arising between Android device management policies and manufacturer specific policies on the Android operating system.