Ivanti's UEM+MTD enhanced mobile device management and threat protection

The National Research and Development Agency (NIKEN) located in Tsukuba Science City has bases nationwide, and in addition to conducting research indoors, it also focuses on fieldwork in the mountains. In order to ensure the safe and secure use of mobile terminals, which are indispensable for activities and research in such an environment, NIKEN has replaced existing MDMs. The result is Ivanti Neurons for MDM (formerly MobileIron) provided by Ivanti. In addition to realising flexible security policy enforcement through high-performance UEM (Unified Endpoint Management), from external threats such as cyber attacks The use of MTD (Mobile Threat Defence), which protects mobile devices, is also beginning to progress.

Responding to the increase in field utilisation and remote work

Switch from existing MDM to UEM+MTD

The National Research and Development Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the National Research and Development Corporation) located in Tsukuba Science City is a public research institute that began as a national testing site established in 1893.

The research site is not only inside the research institute, but also a wide range of fields such as farmland and mountain forests. IT has been used in accordance with business operations for some time, such as "electronic field book" that records fieldwork using mobile terminals, and the types of terminals are also diverse, including Windows, iOS, and Android. In addition, with the impact of the new coronavirus, there have been more opportunities to use terminals for work outside the laboratory, such as remote work.

Therefore, when the time to renew the MDM in use approached, what we asked for a new management product was "a function that covers the main OS" and "MTD (Mobile Threat Defence) that detects and protects against attacks on mobile terminals, which is increasing in threat recently". "In order to meet these requirements and the government's 'cloud-by-default principle' policy, we will conduct internal opinion coordination and market research with the aim of introducing it in a SaaS manner. Did."

This is said by an employee in charge of the security-related department of the National Research Institute.

By using video conferencing, video, and paper manuals together

Full remote deployment to 400 existing terminals

Ivanti, which was selected as a product that meets the conditions after bidding, was introduced in about two months toward the start of use from April 2021.

"This time, it was not introduced to a new terminal, but was replaced with an existing terminal, so it was necessary to devise a way to migrate. We created manuals and dealt remotely with those who could not implement well. There was also the corona pandemic, and it was also fully remote for us to receive support with the introduction of Ivanti. From Ivanti, we feel that we were able to receive proposals and support that firmly grasped the points even remotely while sharing the actual machine on the screen using video conferencing," said a security department official.

For the deployment, considering the use of mobile terminals of the National Research Institute, it was decided to set three major security policiestargeting about 400 units. In addition to clerical use for paperless meetings at research institutes, etc., for field notebook use mainly for outdoor recording, etc., and development policy for use in IoT and Android application development was set respectively.

"End users who use mobile devices for fieldwork will need a backup environment, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, However, it was difficult to procure terminals at once for each use purpose due to the constraints of the procurement system, so it was necessary to have something that could respond flexibly. Therefore, I thought that Ivanti Neurons for MDMM, which can be set to be linked to people (users) rather than on a device-by-device basis, and that can be set smoothly, matches the needs of NIJN. ," says the Cybersecurity Manager at NIKEN.

Since there are variations in the IT literacy of end users, and because there are a wide variety of terminals to be used, and it is difficult to explain with a uniform manual because the screen composition of Android terminals differs depending on the model, not only manuals in paper media but also operation methods by video have been added. After supplementing the detailed parts that cannot be seen in the video with paper materials, we successfully achieved deployment to existing terminals in a short period of time by providing support using remote meetings with end users as necessary.

High‑performance UEM is also satisfied with usability

Ongoing research to further utilise MTD's defensive capabilities

"The Ivanti Neurons for MDM management screen allows you to finely set the search conditions for the target device, so I feel that it is good to be able to search flexibly. On the other hand, MTD is still in the stage of mastering it from now on, but by introducing M TD, it has become possible to visualise threat detection for mobile devices that could not be grasped until now, and a sense of security has been created. Currently, while adjusting the detection level of the alert that an attack has been hit, we are accumulating knowledge to master the prevention part after threat detection" a security department official said.

"In the past, it was mostly for clerical use, but as a research institution, I think that the use of IT will continue to advance in the future. While considering the ideal form of mobile devices used in research places, we will also consider policies and use them widely, and I would like many staff to use safe and secure mobile terminals" says the cybersecurity manager.

In addition, as the field of research expands and the method of utilisation deepens, it is likely that even more diverse mobile utilisation will be carried out. The use of IoT in the field is progressing, but it is also possible to use it in areas where it is difficult for people to enter normally, using the 5G line that will spread in the future.

As the range of use expands, security risks will also increase. Under such circumstances, Ivanti will support and contribute to the use of advanced mobile terminals of the National Research Institute, which supports Japan research, in terms of security.