Report ID: S5060612
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Backing Up AndroidAnd iOS DevicesAs more employees use their own tablets and smartphones for
work, IT teams need to figure out how to back up data created
while on the go. The answer: a smart mix of policies, cloud
services and mobile device management. We outline a data
protection plan that doesn’t depend on end users, because
“BYOD” shouldn’t mean “back up your own data.”
By Ben DuPont
Reports. InformationWeek.com J u n e 2 0 1 2 $ 9 9
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CONT
ENTS
reports.informationweek.com
TABLE OF
June 2012 2
3 Author’s Bio
4 Executive Summary
5 Mobile Invasion
5 Figure 1: Policy on Personal Mobile Device
Use?
6 Figure 2: Storage of Corporate Data on
Mobile Devices
7 Figure 3: Mobile Device and Data Policies?
9 Consider Cloud
9 Figure 4: Cloud Storage Concerns
11 Encryption
11 Figure 5: Importance of Cloud Storage
Features
12 Figure 6: MBM Feature of Interest
13 Work in Progress
15 Related Reports
ABOUT US
InformationWeek Reports’ analysts arm business technology decision-makers with real-world perspective based on qualitative and quantitative research, business and technology assessment and planning tools, and adoption best practices gleaned from experience. To contact us, write to managing director Art Wittmann at [email protected], content director Lorna Garey at [email protected], editor-at-largeAndrewConry-Murray at [email protected], andresearch managing editor Heather Vallis [email protected]. Find all of our reports at reports.informationweek.com.
B a c k i n g U p A n d r o i d a n d i O S D e v i c e s
June 2012 3
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© 2012 InformationWeek, Reproduction Prohibited
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B a c k i n g U p A n d r o i d a n d i O S D e v i c e s
Ben DuPont is a software engineer in Green Bay, Wis., and owner of NeblandSoftware LLC. He can be reached at [email protected].
Ben DuPontInformationWeek Reports
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Smartphones and tablets present new backup challenges for IT. First, IT has to wrestlewith a broad category of products that run on a variety of operating systems, which complicates centralized management and backups. Second, many of these mobile devices are owned by the employee, not the company, which limits IT’s control. At thesame time, these employee-owned devices access corporate applications and data, and IThas an obligation to protect that data.The result is that IT has to assemble a set of policies and technologies that rely on a
variety of products and services, including cloud-based backup, file synchronization andmobile device management. A growing number of cloud backup and file synchronizationservices offer administrative controls that allow IT to enforce policies, provision and deprovision users, and monitor content such as Office files. At present, backup isn’t a significant feature in mobile device management products, but that’s likely to changeover time as more and more end users bring personal mobile devices into the workplace.At the same time, mobile device management helps ensure that data will be safe fromprying eyes in the event that a device gets lost or stolen.
EXECUTIVE
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SUM
MAR
Y
B a c k i n g U p A n d r o i d a n d i O S D e v i c e s Table of Contents
June 2012 5
As smartphone and tablet use grows in theenterprise, IT wrestles with how to back upsensitive data that might reside on these plat-forms. This task is complicated by the fact thatmany mobile devices are the property of theemployee, not the employer. In fact, 86% of respondents to InformationWeek ’s 2012 Mobile Security Survey said they allow or planto allow employee-owned devices (Figure 1).Unfortunately for IT, the devices users
choose aren’t the ones IT is most ready for.While IT can manage BlackBerry devices with-out much difficulty, users want Apple and Android products. Our survey shows that 46%of respondents allow employee-owned AppleiOS devices to store corporate data, followedby 42% that allow Android 3.x and 4.x devices,and 28% that allow Android 2.x devices (Fig-ure 2). Add BlackBerry at 41% and WindowsPhone at 26% to that list and you can see IThas its work cut out for it when it comes tobacking up data on these devices.If you allow user-owned devices to access
corporate applications or data, make sure yourmobile device policy clearly describes thecompany’s requirements for allowing that access. IT’s first reaction to the bring-your-own-device phenomenon may be to writeseparate policies for employee- and company-
issued devices. That’s the wrong approach,says Michael Finneran, an independent con-sultant and industry analyst. “Our job is tomake sure mobile users get access to the stuffthey need securely, regardless of who ownsthe phone,” says Finneran. “What level of se-
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Does your mobility policy allow employees to use personal mobile devices for work?
14%
62%24%
Policy on Personal Mobile Device Use?
Yes
No, and we have no plans to allow personal device use
No, but we’re developing a policy
Data: InformationWeek 2012 Mobile Security Survey of 322 business technology professionals, March 2012 R4720512/3
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Mobile Invasion
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Figure 1
June 2012 6
curity is required is defined by the organiza-tion, … and what users get access to is de-fined by their role.”Your policy should also be clear about
where IT’s responsibilities lie regarding back-ups: IT has a right and an obligation to backup company data, and to take steps to do so.But IT doesn’t have any obligation to protecta user’s personal information, files, applica-tions and other information, such as photosand videos.Of course, separating personal and corporate
data is easier said than done. A mobile devicecan quickly become a hodgepodge of busi-ness and private information. For instance, aphone’s contact list could have personal andbusiness contacts. Business documents savedas PDFs may be loaded into an e-reader app.Thus, your policy must make it clear that whileIT isn’t responsible for backing up your MP3files or vacation photos, some personal datamay be intermingled with corporate backups.Almost half of the respondents to our Infor-mationWeek Mobile Device Management andSecurity Survey have written policies and pro-
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On which of the following mobile device platforms does your organization permit corporate data to be stored?
Storage of Corporate Data on Mobile Devices
Data: InformationWeek 2012 Mobile Security Survey of 322 business technology professionals, March 2012 R4670512/35
Company-provided Personally owned
80%
41%
70%
41%
62%
46%
42%
36%
35%
25%
35%
28%
34%
23%
30%
26%
14%
10%
6%7%
4% 4%
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Figure 2
FAST FACT
86%of respondents to
InformationWeek’s 2012
Mobile Security Survey
said they allow or plan to
allow employee-owned
devices.
June 2012 7
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cedures regarding the handling of mobiledata (Figure 3). If you haven’t yet developed amobile policy, make sure you get input frommultiple sources, including HR, security, legaland users themselves.
Backup ChallengesYour IT organization probably has mecha-
nisms in place to back up users’ laptops andPCs. A typical plan calls for backing up every-thing on the device, including the OS, appli-cations and files such as Office documents.Full backups, including the OS, are possible
on mobile platforms, but not without somechallenges. The operating systems for Appleand Android phones and tablets run applica-tions in a sandbox that don’t permit apps tosee data generated by other apps, whichmeans a traditional backup agent like thekind that runs on a PC wouldn’t be able tocapture all the data on a mobile device. Organizations that want to perform a fullbackup will have to use workarounds.Apple requires the use of its iTunes service
to activate iPhones and iPads. The iTunes ser -
vice is also used to update the devices and re-install the OS, if necessary. Apple phones andtablets have to sync with iTunes to back updata. IT can deploy iTunes software to em-ployees’ work computers using desktop man-
agement tools. If users sync their Applephones or tablets to their work computers,then iTunes will automatically back up themobile device and store that backup on thework computer, which gives IT some measure
2012 State of Mobile Security
With 62% already allowing personal devices at work, IT’s juggling laptop policies and Wi-Fipolicies and BYOD policies—andthat means security gaps bigenough to drive a semi through.Most, 80%, require only passwords for mobile devicesthat access enterprise data/ -networks, yet just 14% requirehardware encryption, no exceptions. Let’s be clear: Mobilesecurity is data security, and wemust do better.
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2011 2010
Does your organization currently have written policies or procedures pertaining specifically to mobile/portable devices or the handling of mobile data?
Mobile Device and Data Polices?
Yes; written policies and procedures
Yes; written policies only
Yes; written procedures only
No, but policies are being considered or are under development
No
Base: 323 respondents in August 2011 and 307 in March 2010Data: InformationWeek Mobile Device Management and Security Survey of business technology professionals
R3321011/19
49%52%
18%19%
6%4%
21%22%
6%3%
Figure 3
June 2012 8
of control over the data. Apple’s manual forenterprise deployments has more informa-tion on backing up Apple mobile devices. Apple also allows for different data types to
be synced to different computers. For exam-ple, music files can be synced to a home com-puter and contacts to a work computer. If ITactivates the tablet or phone for the employee via iTunes, the service can be pre-configured to enforce this separation of data,so that information important to the com-
pany is synced andbacked up to a corpo-rate PC, while personaldata stays with a user’scomputer. However, given that
many Apple devices arepurchased by employees, there’s a strong like-lihood that they would activate and sync theirmobile devices to iTunes running on a per-sonal computer, which may put backups out-side of IT’s control.Android devices aren’t much better when
it comes to a full backup of the OS and all
data; the Android OS doesn’t provide hooksneeded for a full device backup. A backupmanager API is built in to the Android plat-form, but each Android device vendor, suchas Samsung and Mo tor ola, must create a cus-tomized backup transport that user applica-tions can communicate with through theAPI. The upshot is that each individual appli-cation on the device must have backup sup-port built in by the application vendor, andIT cannot necessarily control where thebackup lands.Some third-party services, such as MyBack-
upPro, will back up just about everything onan Android device except the OS, but the An-droid device has to be rooted to enable this.A device is rooted when the user subverts sys-tem controls placed by the device manufac-turer so that the user can get “root,” or administrator, access to the device. Many organizations don’t want rooted devices con-necting to corporate networks because of thepotential security dangers. While users root their devices to gain more
control, they also expose themselves to more
risks. Rooted devices have a greater potentialof exposing private data to malware, becausemalware on the device can take advantage ofroot privileges. And users with rooted phonesmay also have the ability to disable securityfeatures enabled by mobile device manage-ment software, such as the password strengthpolicy and autolock. Users can also installapps that would otherwise be blacklisted byMDM software. For these reasons, many or-ganizations don’t allow rooted mobile devicesonto the corporate network.Most Android smartphones come with a
card slot into which the user can plug an external storage device, such as an SD Card.The Android device can be configured to savedata to this external device, providing anotherbackup option for IT, but again this requires adiligent user who knows enough to back upthe data and then either save the data to a PCthat IT regularly backs up or deliver the re-movable card to IT for backup. Some backupagents can also back up data on an SD Card.If you store corporate data on an SD Card, beaware that the data will not be encrypted by
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Your policy should also be clear
about where IT’s responsibilities
lie regarding backups.
June 2012 9
device encryption and the data will be read-able by any application on the device.While backup for most mobile device data is
challenging, email is the exception, particularlyfor companies that use Microsoft Exchange. Mi-crosoft offers an ActiveSync agent that syn-chronizes email and attachments between theExchange server and mobile devices. The dataremains on the Exchange server so it can besynced among multiple devices (laptop, desk-top, mobile phone, etc.). Exchange servers arealready part of a company’s centralized backupprogram, so corporate email doesn’t need tobe backed up on individual mobile devices.
Consider CloudAndroid and iOS devices do support backups
of certain user data, such as device settings, cal-endar and contacts, photos, and SMS, butthere’s no easy way for an enterprise to back upthat information to a central location—unlessIT is willing to consider cloud-based backup.One option is a company called Druva, which
provides a variety of services, includingbackup, for laptops and mobile devices. IT can
have backups stored on premises or in Druva’scloud. Druva’s application, inSync, provides ad-ministrator-controlled backup for Apple and
Android devices. On iOS and Android plat-forms, administrators can schedule backups ofcontacts, pictures, videos, text messages and
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2012 2011
What are your main concerns about using cloud storage services?
Cloud Storage Concerns
Security
Reliability and availability
Performance
Cost
Regulatory concerns
Other
Note: Multiple responses allowedBase: 313 respondents in January 2012 and 377 in November 2010Data: InformationWeek State of Storage Survey of business technology professionals
R4190212/23
79%79%
52%55%
49%51%
39%48%
38%34%
3%5%
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Figure 4
June 2012 10
call history. When it comes to Office-type files,the user can manually share files with inSyncand inSync will back them up.Asigra also offers a cloud-based backup
service that supports mobile devices. On theAndroid platform, Asigra’s DS-Mobile Clientcan back up contacts, calendar, call logs, set-tings, apps and Office files. On iOS, the clientcan back up contacts, calendars, photos andvideo. Many cloud backup vendors also resellAsigra’s client to support mobile devicebackup for their customers.Business contacts and SMS data are impor-
tant to IT, but Office files are likely to be themost sensitive corporate information thatgets used on mobile devices—think of an executive working on spreadsheets whilewaiting to catch a connection at the airport,or a salesperson updating a presentation fora new customer.If IT is concerned about Office files, it may
want to consider cloud-based synchroniza-tion services such as Box and Dropbox. Whilenot technically a backup, these file synchro-nization services do store copies of files, in-
cluding updates and changes, in the cloud. Ifa mobile device is lost or wiped, users can stillrecover their files. In addition, many of theseservices support some form of centralizedmanagement for IT, such as being able to cre-ate and monitor corporate accounts for users.While IT may be uncomfortable with putting
corporate data into the cloud (security wasthe No. 1 concern of cloud storage in Informa-tionWeek’s 2012 State of Storage Survey), thefact is, users are flocking to these offeringswith or without IT’s approval (Figure 4). IT maybe better served by getting out in front of theproblem by offering a version to users that al-lows some measure of administrative control.For instance, in May, Box announced new se-curity and administration features to make iteasier for IT to manage users and files. Mean-while, Dropbox launched a Teams version ofits service that includes administrative func-tions such as the ability to add and removeusers from the service. Similar options include Syncplicity, a file syn-
chronization and sharing platform designedfor enterprise use that supports mobile
devices. On the Android platform, users can up-date existing files and create new ones, andhave them synced via the service to be avail-able elsewhere. Apple iPhone users can uploadand view files, but can’t create new files. Sync-plicity, which was recently acquired by EMC,supports administrative controls such as revok-ing user accounts and setting and resettingpasswords. Other products that combine cloudsynchronization with administrative controlsinclude Trend Micro SafeSync and Mezeo.Other options include services from Egnyte
and SugarSync, both of which offer cloud-based file synchronization and storage for mobile platforms. Both companies enable mobile access to files, and both cansynchronize and save new files that are created on a mobile device, or changes thathave been made to existing files (assumingthat the mobile platform offers file creation orediting capabilities).All of these services ensure that documents
and files will remain available to IT and busi-ness users even if the mobile device is lost ordamaged.
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June 2012 11
EncryptionWhen using a cloud-based service, data
should be encrypted both in transit and at rest.Respondents to the InformationWeek’s PublicCloud Storage Survey rated data encryption asthe third-most-important feature of a cloudstorage system, just behind the ability to movedata between cloud and on-premises storage,and on-demand access (Figure 5). Most cloud backup and synchronization
services support encryption in transit—theprocedures and protocols for encrypting dataas it travels over networks are well estab-lished. Many cloud storage and file synchro-nization services also encrypt the data storedon their systems. For instance, SugarSync encrypts all stored files using 128-bit AES, andBox encrypts data at rest using 256-bit AES.The question then becomes one of trust. If
the provider manages decryption keys,which potentially opens the door to unau-thorized access to your information by arogue employee or outside attacker. Theprobability of such an occurrence is low, butif it represents a risk you don’t want to take,
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How important are the following features when using or evaluating a cloud storage service? Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is “not important” and 5 is “very important.”
Importance of Cloud Storage Features
Note: Mean average ratingsBase: 229 respondents at organizations using, planning to adopt or assessing public cloud storage servicesData: InformationWeek Public Cloud Storage Survey of 363 business technology professionals, April 2011
R2750511/7
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June 2012 12
you can look for a vendor that supports a dis-tributed key management system, such asDruva. In Druva’s approach, neither the company nor the customer has direct access
to the encryption key; part of the key is encrypted with the user’s password, and the key can only be recovered when a userlogs in.
Mobile Device ManagementMDM systems are available to help IT get a
measure of control over smartphones andtablets, including user-owned devices. We rec-ommend the use of MDM products as part ofyour overall mobility strategy. Unfortunately,only a handful of MDM platforms addressbackup: Of 11 products in the Information-Week Mobile Device Management Buyer’sGuide, just three support remote backup:Fiberlink, Sybase and Wyse. However, we an-ticipate that more MDM vendors will offersome form of backup service or partner witha provider.However, it’s also clear that IT isn’t looking
to MDM vendors for backup capabilities. Inour 2011 Mobile Device Management and Se-curity Survey, only 11% of respondents listed“scheduled backup and restore” as a featureof interest. Twelve other features rankedhigher, including security-centric featuressuch as compliance and policy settings, policyenforcement and remote wipes (Figure 6). That attitude may change as smartphones
and tablets become more ingrained in corpo-
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Whether or not you have a mobile device management (MDM) system for controlling tablets and smartphones, which centrally controlled features are of greatest interest to you?
MDM Features of Interest
Com
plia
nce/
polic
y set
ting
Polic
y enf
orce
men
t
Devi
ce u
pdat
es
Man
agem
ent o
f phy
sical
dev
ices
Audi
ting
Rem
ote
sele
ctiv
e da
ta w
ipe
Rem
ote
full
data
wip
e
Supp
ort f
or m
ultip
le d
evice
type
s
Over
-the
-air
prov
ision
ing
and
upda
tes
Appl
icatio
n w
hite
listin
g
Rem
ote
trou
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Jailb
reak
/roo
ting
dete
ctio
n
Sche
dule
bac
kup
and
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Vuln
erab
ility
rem
edia
tion
Role
-bas
ed p
olici
es
Priv
ate
app
stor
e
Sand
boxi
ng ca
pabi
litie
s
RSS/
Web
bro
wsin
g
Othe
r
Note: Five responses allowedData: InformationWeek 2011 Mobile Device Management and Security Survey of 323 business technology professionals, August 2011
R3321011/27
53%
51%
44%
40%
34%
34%
30%
29%
26%
21%
20%
18%
11%
11%
9% 8% 8%
5%
2%
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Figure 6
June 2012 13
rate workflow, and as the devices’ ability tocreate content improves. In the meantime, thelack of backup in an MDM platform doesn’tdetract from MDM’s other capabilities. As you evaluate MDM products, ask the
vendors where backup sits on their road maps.And in the meantime, there are a few other pro-tection mechanisms you should ensure areavailable today.The first line of defense is a strong password.
However, users are notorious for selecting sim-ple passwords, so you can fortify the mobile device with an autolock feature. Autolockmakes the device inaccessible if a person failsto enter the correct password after a predeter-mined number of tries. However, while lockoutfeatures will slow down an attacker, the lockoutmechanism is only effective if the device is at-tacked through the UI. If an attacker can get di-rect access to the content on the device,whether through an OS exploit or by gettingphysical control of the device and prying outthe memory chip, the lockout won’t help. That’swhy encryption is the next line of defense.Most MDM platforms support full device en-
cryption, which IT may find comforting in casea device is lost or stolen. However, note that en-cryption isn’t guaranteed protection becauserecovery of the encryption key is possible,though difficult. For a device to encrypt anddecrypt data, it needs a key that must be storedsomewhere on the device. Android and iOS de-vices solve this problem by encrypting the en-cryption key with the user’s password. The mo-bile device prompts the user for the password,decrypts the encryption key, and can then en-crypt and decrypt data.However, if an attacker gains direct access
to the flash memory on the device, the attacker can carry out a brute-force attackagainst the encrypted key. If the password issimple, the key can be recovered quickly.Other features to look for include device
tracking and remote wipe. Device tracking willallow you to confirm the location of a user’s device. If it seems that the probability of recovering a device is low, remote wipe will ensure that no one can recover the data.Of course, a remote wipe is tricky with a
device owned by the employee—you’ll
prevent sensitive information from beingleaked, but you’ll also destroy whatever per-sonal information was stored on the device.This might not be a problem if the device couldn't be recovered, but it will be anissue if the employee leaves the company. Lookfor an MDM product that can differentiate between private and company-owned data.For instance, Symantec says its MDM product,Symantec Mobile Management, can keep per-sonal and corporate data separate. We also rec-ommend that your policy address the issue ofremote wiping for employee-owned devices. Ifyour policy requires that a device be wiped, andyou allow the use of personal devices, makesure employees understand the potential tohave personal data eliminated.Other MDM features to look for include
application blacklisting or whitelisting, detection of rooted phones, and the abilityto host a corporate app store with apps sanctioned by the company.
Work in ProgressEnterprise backup schemes for Android and
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iOS devices are still in their infancy, whichmeans IT may have to take a variety of approaches to protect corporate data on thesedevices. First and foremost, IT needs to have amobile device policy that describes its role andresponsibility for data backups. That policyshould be created with input from a variety ofstakeholders, not just the IT department. IT should also consider cloud services for
backing up and synchronizing files; while ITmay be reluctant to embrace cloud storage,such services can be a sensible alternative totraditional, premises-based backup productsfor mobile devices.Finally, deploy an MDM product that sup-
ports full device encryption, strong pass-words, autolock and remote wipe. These stepswill go a long way to protecting corporatedata.
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