Vendors Work to Make Android Safe for BYOD

The benefit of the Android OS’s open-source origins is that it’s flexible, customizable and adaptable. This allows mobile-device manufacturers to throw their skins on top of their preferred flavor of Android with ease, as opposed to more closed-system mobile operating systems like Apple’s iOS or BlackBerry OS.

But this flexibility also makes security a challenge. One patch won’t work for all versions of Android OS, and furthermore, it might not work on every Android device. And in an environment that encourages a BYOD policy, this could be an unacceptable vulnerability for the organization.

McAfee is stepping in to make Android smartphones and tablets more palatable for BYOD with its Mobile Security 2.0 offering. Silicon Angle reports on the features of the mobile security product:

“At its core, Mobile Security 2.0 scans and cleans malicious code from files, memory cards, applications, downloads, text messages, and attachments,” according to McAfee. “They can also remotely wipe data on their phone and the removable memory card. To ensure that nothing is lost, a backup can be made before everything is deleted, according to McAfee. To find the phone, users can view the device’s location on a map, send an SMS to prompt its return, and use a remote alarm to help find it,” McAfee said.

For more on Android mobile-security efforts by vendors, read the full story on Silicon Angle. Read more great content from around the web by checking out the 50 Must-Read IT Blogs from BizTech.