[smartphony]

NIST in his latest article about securing mobile devices in the enterprise (http://1.usa.gov/MXMkRs) talks about smartphones and tablets. They exclude laptops. They said:
"This publication provides recommendations for securing particular types of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets. Laptops are specifically excluded from the scope of this publication because the security controls available for laptops today are quite different than those available for smart phones, tablets, and other mobile device types. Mobile devices with minimal computing capability, such as basic cell phones, are also out of scope because of the limited security options available and the limited threats they face."

Anyone here know which are the differences in security controls bettween smartphones/tablets and laptops? NIST said there are some differences.

[zx10guy]

This is the current major IT challenge being faced by many enterprise organizations....BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and mobility. The challenge is how to provide services to these types of devices without compromising corporate security. There are many different systems out there which are designed to address this. Some systems have the ability to restrict the type of applications on the mobile device that can access the network. Others do this via a special mobility client to be loaded on the device. Some also do device scans to profile the device and to ensure minimum security standards before admittance on the network.

[smartphony]

Yes I know that there are different software solutions for this problem. I saw a lot MDM (Mobile Device Management) software solutions who can do remote managing of the mobile devices in the enterprise. I know that there are also MAM (Mobile Application Management) software solutions which have ability to restrict type of applications on the mobile device like you said.

As I saw most of this software solutions can manage only mobile devices with mobile operating systems. Is this the reason why NIST exclude laptops from his document? Are there some other differences in security controls bettween smartphones/tablets and laptops?

As I said most of software solutions are focused on devices with mobile operating systems but there are also software solutions which offer managing multiple platforms (mobile operating system and classic operating systems). And that bother me a lot. I would like to write about this topic in my diploma thesis but I don't know if it's good to write only about smartphones and tablets or it's better to include laptops too. Soon Windows 8 will come. Windows 8 will looks the same on laptops and tablets so maybe all this software solutions above will include also classic operating systems.

[zx10guy]

Laptops and slates (Windows Tablets) are not discussed in the same manner as mobile devices like smart phones and tablets because laptops and slates run native Windows OS. Therefore all the security lock downs that applies to desktop deployments applies to these devices. The conversations I've had with various enterprise organizations about mobile security doesn't center around laptops and slates. These are easy to lock down as the general group policy profiles can be pushed down to these devices. Many organizations are exploring using slates as their standard for tablets. It's the iOS and Android platforms that have many IT managers running scared.

The only issue the IT departments have to deal with on laptops and slates is securing the data on these devices in the event an employee loses it.

[smartphony]

So you believe that when Windows 8 will come organisations and MDM and MAM software developers will still treat separately laptops/slates (Windows tablets) and smartphones/tablets (Mobile operating system)? If yes then I think it's not such a big problem if I write only about smartphones/tablets (Mobile operating system). I asked about this some companies which develop MDM software but I didn't get answer.

Please answer me to this question that I asked before. Which are the differences in security controls bettween smartphones/tablets and laptops/slates? Are differences only in MDM, MAM and other software solution or are there some other thing that I don't know?

I'm very glad that you helping me!