Larger organisations typically have systems and processes to manage mobile devices on their corporate networks. It’s not uncommon for these organisations to blacklist certain apps, be it for security or productivity reasons. Mobile device management vendor MobileIron has unveiled a list of the top 10 apps banned by Australian enterprises .
MobileIron has around 12,000 customers around the world and specialises in enterprise mobile management (EMM) solutions. The company looked at anonymised data from its own customer-base to find out which mobile apps are most commonly banned in Australian organisations.
Without further ado, here’s the list of the top 10 apps banned by Australian enterprise:
- Angry birds
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- Box
- Skype
- Viber
- Clash of Clans
Some of the apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Clash of Clans, a mobile game, are likely blacklisted because they may impact staff productivity. But banning cloud storage apps such as Google Drive, Box and Dropbox could be a way that enterprise IT departments try to combat the growing problem of Shadow IT, reduce the chance of data loss and prevent other security compromises due to human error.
Another mobility issue that MobileIron looked at was the amount of Australian enterprises that enforce operating system updates. Alarmingly, only seven per cent of organisations do this, just a smidgen below the global average of eight per cent.
MobileIron CEO Barry Mainz noted that enforcing operating system updates that are released is crucial for the security of end-users device and organisations as they often provide patches to known vulnerabilities.
Has your company banned any apps that didn’t make the top 10 list? Let us know int the comments.
Comments
9 responses to “Top 10 Apps Banned By Australian Enterprises”
We have FB and Twitter blocked not because of lost productivity but because some people can’t separate work and life. A blanket ban had to be introduced after restricted/confidential material started appearing on personal pages.
Of course this doesn’t stop people using their own devices on their own plan. But it does make it obvious when work devices display the filter warning. And gives the employer grounds for dismissal if sensitive stuff leaks.
Dropbox, Google Drive, Box are more likely blocked not to stop shadow IT but to restrict the loss of confidential data!
Yeah… By way of shadow it, whose biggest risks are associated with compliance. In other words, the protection of corporate / confidential information…
😐
Yup. I alluded to that in the same sentence 🙂
p p p Pokemon Go too?
Probably soon!
How does this protect against data loss when anyone can carry a usb stick out the door?
A lot of workplaces restrict USB drive access too. At my last job, you could only use specific USBs with specific computers. This had the impact of killing the use of USBs at all. In their defence, they did provide alternative (and traceable) methods for transferring files to clients. Annoying but more secure.
This is a double-edged sword.
When I was at a very large security software company, our phones would often stop working with the security tokens on there if we upgraded too early. This prevented some of the perculiar bugs in IOS that had previously and dramatically impacted enterprise systems from wi-fi through to exchange.
Where I am now use MobileIron, and the App store that we have with it even has Candy Crush saga advertised as an endorsed app – cos we “like to have fun.”
We block cloud storage solutions for another reason – Data Sovereignty.
Cloud storage of company data almost always involves offshoring of the data by the hosting companies – usually to the US, and the auspices of the Patriot Act.
We are investigating implementing OneDrive Business because we can ensure through Microsoft that the data remains hosted in on-shore Azure servers.