Going Beyond Baseline IT Policy
with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Policy Reference Guide
 While it may be outside of your corporate firewall, and smaller than any other piece of technology that you support, a BlackBerry® smartphone is a terminal on your network. As such, IT Administrators need to ensure that they manage the BlackBerry solution in the same way that you manage other hardware in your environment. The same policy considerations apply to both environments, like application control, passwords, and Bluetooth®-enabled devices, each of which have been profiled in recent IT Policy Spotlight articles from BlackBerry Connection®. In this article, we explain how the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Policy Reference Guide can help you put these IT policies into action.
There is no doubt that IT Administrators have plenty of technology issues competing for attention. To save you time in managing your BlackBerry solution, RIM provides BlackBerry Enterprise Server administrators with tools for managing your mobile solution in the same way that you manage your traditional corporate network.
One of the tools that RIM provides is the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Policy Reference Guide. It includes an up to date list and description of all available IT Policies for the BlackBerry® Enterprise Solution and it shows you how to create a mobile solution with optimal security and efficiency by giving you the actual configurations and true / false settings required to put your desired IT policy rules in place.
Take user authentication as an example. What is your acceptable user authentication policy for BlackBerry smartphones going to look like?
Some things to consider are password length and strength, and whether or not you might require password patterns or forbid specific passwords.
You’ll find sample configurations for these common considerations in the Guide. To Extend a corporate password policy to BlackBerry smartphones, for example, the Guide tells you the Password Required policy rule should be set to True.
(Note: Complete sample configurations for this corporate password scenario can be found in Section 5 of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Policy Reference Guide.) Download now
Consider for a moment your IT policy for limiting user control of third-party applications on BlackBerry smartphones. How would you put this policy into practice?
The Guide provides you with ten specific scenarios and configurations for doing so, in a simple chart format. To Prevent third-party applications or themes from being downloaded to the BlackBerry smartphone, the Guide tells you to set Disallow Third Party Application Downloads to True, and gives you nine other scenarios and settings to copy or modify as you see fit.
Other questions you’ll face when considering IT Policy as it relates to BlackBerry smartphones are:
- What measures can we put in place to protect the BlackBerry smartphones from unauthorized use?
- What kind of encryption rules should apply to BlackBerry smartphone data?
- Are our settings optimally configured to prevent viruses and malicious user attacks?
Sample configurations to address all of these scenarios are found in the Guide.
Going Beyond Default IT Policy on Your BlackBerry Smartphones
Each BlackBerry smartphone, upon activation, is added to a customizable base IT policy to ensure a minimum level of security. RIM makes it easy to take your BlackBerry smartphones beyond this starting point, so you can create user groups and modify policies to meet the security needs of your organization.
Deployment is equally easy. All policy settings are synchronized and assigned to BlackBerry smartphones over the air. So no matter how large your deployment, BlackBerry Enterprise Server administrators can easily change IT policies on a corporate level without requiring users to cradle their BlackBerry smartphones.
With over 300 IT policies, BlackBerry leads the way in helping administrators manage and control their entire wireless solution through intuitive and comprehensive IT management tools.
For more on these 300+ IT policies available with the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, including many sample configurations, download the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Policy Guide.
Related Links
IT Policy Spotlight Articles Archive:
Podcast: BlackBerry Security In Depth
Karen Forster, editorial and strategy director for Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine, interviews Scott Totzke, Vice President, Global Security Group at Research In Motion, in a conversation that centers on mobile device security and the BlackBerry® Smart Card Reader.
(Note: You will be required to fill out a registration form to download this podcast.)
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