Cisco Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client v2.x White Paper

 

 

© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. 

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on the device and the potential for the device to be used to gain access to critical business systems can force a 

company to spend thousands, if not millions, in incident response, information and system recovery, and 

responsible disclosure costs. 

To provide a first level of protection if a mobile device is lost, comprehensive device security should be enforced for 

all mobile users who access corporate information. Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility solution supports the use of 

digital certificates, which can be revoked immediately when devices are lost, denying access to the network. 
Policies like PIN lock, device encryption, and not “jailbreaking” phones will help secure a device even if it is lost and 

will reduce the threats that can be introduced as mobile OS platforms are opened up. Every organization must 

determine which smar

tphone and tablet policies they require, and must work with each platform’s capabilities to 

enforce that level of security. Many companies will find Exchange ActiveSync sufficient; others will need the 

advanced features of a mobile device management soluti

on to complement and enhance AnyConnect’s built-in 

device security features.  

—Companies used to dictate the type of IT equipment an employee would use. By doing 

so, IT could maintain control over the device and the endpoint, thus ensuring that a consistent security was 

enforced. IT is now moving toward a model where the employee either purchases their own mobile device or IT 

reimburses the purchase of a device. Either way, the employee chooses the device that they would like to use on 

the corporate network. The cost of this flexibility and choice for the employee is that IT can no longer dictate what 

image will be on each device, because each device is individually owned. 

AnyConnect Secure Mobility solves this problem by making the AnyConnect client available on each endpoint. 

Broad device support for laptops, smartphones, and tablets means that the basic secure connectivity can be easily 

enforced and always on. In addition, the underlying web security from the Cisco Web Security Appliance or 

ScanSafe ensures consistent policy enforcement, whether the user is accessing information in the office or 

remotely.  

Conclusion 

Instead of fighting IT consumerization and the associated flood of new mobile devices, connections, and 

applications, the enterprise must embrace the mobile environment as a model through which employee and partner 

productivity and creativity can flourish. Mobility is here to stay, and it is up to IT departments to find a way to 

consistently enforce security on those mobile devices.  

With Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility, companies can embrace mobility and leverage their existing infrastructure 

and processes to provide secure access to anyone, anywhere, anytime, from any device. 

To learn about Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, please visit