The growing use of mobility is a new threat vector in the extended network. It's particularly complex to secure and manage when tablets and smartphones are used for both personal and business needs. The Ponemon 2014 Security Impact of Mobile Device Use by Employees study notes that 66 percent of users download mobile apps without their company's permission. This downloading behavior increases the attack surface by introducing unapproved or personal mobile applications.

As highlighted in the Cisco Annual Security Report for 2015, mobile applications are a new threat vector that could include malware. The potential for this user-appropriated malware to access corporate resources introduces a lot of new risks that need to be addressed by IT security personnel. At Cisco, we've just completed a new integration with Samsung to enable workers to be productive while locking down this expanded attack surface.

Samsung has just announced that their advanced and popular Android-based KNOX mobile platform integrates with Cisco AnyConnect, the leading enterprise VPN, to deliver more secure and seamless connectivity to the corporate network for Samsung mobile devices. Samsung users can securely access corporate-approved applications from anywhere with Cisco's per-app VPN capability in AnyConnect 4.0, including encrypted access. This capability means that applications that aren't on the corporate-approved list of applications do not connect back to the corporate network and will not use the corporate network's resources. This removes the possibility of non-corporate or personal applications that may be corrupted from impacting corporate networks and data, limiting the risk of disruption or loss.

Cisco AnyConnect Enterprise Application Selector

The AnyConnect enterprise application selector tool allows IT to simply point and click to the approved applications for a Samsung user profile. Users see only the applications that are permitted for remote corporate access on their Samsung devices. This is new to AnyConnect 4.0, making controlling access to corporate assets from a Samsung device easy to set up.

There is no question that remote mobile access to corporate information is an essential part of doing business these days. Offering this capability in a secure manner, thereby reducing a potential new attack surface, is critical to ensuring that there is no disruption of availability to corporate resources while empowering users to be productive. This is the result of the combined power of Cisco AnyConnect and the Samsung KNOX platform!

Get a quick overview on this advanced VPN solution.