Mobile app policies important to govern development and use

Today's employees are more mobile than ever, leveraging smartphones, tablets and laptops to do their jobs from a range of different locations. In order to support this flexibility and bolster collaboration among co-workers, many organizations establish BYOD practices, along with several policies to ensure the initiative's success.

When it comes to the development and use of mobile devices and applications, companies can never be too careful. There are several considerations that decision-makers must make to prevent the misuse of technology and to keep their mission-critical assets protected. For mobile applications, there are several rules that a business may choose to implement, each critical to the advancement of BYOD and the workforce overall.

Policies governing use of apps
To ensure that workers are not engaging in rogue IT practices, many organizations enact guidelines to govern the use of mobile applications, including where, when and how they can be utilized.

One such rule concerns jailbroken devices, where employees break through security measures to carry out specific tasks or access different materials. CMSWire pointed out that when devices are jailbroken, they are an open door to malware infections which can spread to content accessed through the endpoint. For this reason, administrators should block jailbroken devices from accessing the enterprise network and corporate apps.

Business leaders may also want to consider enacting a policy that prevents employees from accessing programs depending upon their location. CMSWire noted that sensitive information could be vulnerable when an app is accessed on an unsecured network, such as at an airport or coffee shop.

"Who knows who might be snooping into those networks and capturing your passwords, corporate data center other sensitive information?" the source stated.

While not all public networks contain security weaknesses, decision-makers should deploy a policy that outlines sensitive applications used by the company, noting that these programs should not be opened unless on a secure network.

App development policies
Organizations may also want to establish policies governing the development of their mobile apps. These guidelines would specifically impact program creators and would provide an outline of what the business allows and does not permit during app production.

This policy could include a range of different rules, including what component suites should be used and if the organization prefers HTML5 over other coding languages. For example, the New York Institute of Technology's app development policy contains clauses related to the use of the institution's name and logo, copyright information and intellectual property.