Mobility and Security
How to ensure secure access to the company network from outside?
Most companies do have a security concept in place for the mobile use of laptops and PCs. It makes sense to integrate tablets and smartphones into the same security concept. A smartphone is nothing else than additional hardware accessing the company network from outside.
VPN is a widely used architecture for this purpose. The users can dial into the company network on their smartphones via a VPN tunnel like they would do it from their PC.
Another possibility is the access via SSL-connection (https: = encrypted connection). In very sensitive cases, additional web servers can be placed in the demilitarized zone, which take over the communication with the backend systems.
Authentication is also a means for securing external access. The most simple form is the use of username and password. Certificates provide better security: The backend only communicates with mobile devices, which authenticate themselves via appropriate certificates.