Addressing mobile security in healthcare

Just before HIMSS11, I was speaking with a number of hospital CIOs regarding information security in healthcare. One of the key concerns I kept hearing about had to do with securing mobile devices, so I thought it timely that AirWatch's latest release--AirWatch 5.13--aims to speed and secure mobile device deployments through its enhanced Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) integration and certificate management framework.

The bottom line is that these improvements should make it easier for users to generate and manage certificates on mobile devices for authentication and encryption.

Upon authenticating a mobile device user, AirWatch automatically generates the necessary certificates for the device, which accelerates the overall mobile device deployment process. Organizations can rely on their own existing PKI and Certificate Authority (CA), or AirWatch can set up the infrastructure for generating and managing certificates.

According to a company statement, the software’s enhanced certificate framework automatically generates and then issues the necessary certificates for authentication to Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes, VPN servers, Wi-Fi networks and more. For environments requiring high levels of device security, AirWatch can rotate and re-issue large volumes of service-based certificates on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis.

The new version (5.13) directly integrates with Microsoft Certificate Services and other popular PKI infrastructures. Certificates can be generated and managed using either a pre-defined CA service account, or with end-user credentials. The solution integrates with Microsoft Active Directory to store certificate information in a user’s account. It also associates the certificate with the user’s account as a logon credential, which is required for single-factor certificate-based authentication with Exchange ActiveSync. This method of ActiveSync authentication promises to prevent account lockouts that occur due to expired passwords.

Photo obtained from Apple.