Half of US Counties not Putting MDM Software on Employees' Devices, Survey Finds

Fewer than half of information technology departments at the 50 top U.S. county governments provide software that monitors, manages and secures their employees' mobile devices, the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers said in a survey released Tuesday. IAITAM said only a quarter of the counties require that such mobile device management software (MDM) be installed across all their government departments. The survey found 43 out of the 50 counties supply mobile devices to employees, but only 20 have MDM software and the remainder either lack such software or didn't respond. Of the 20 that do have MDM software, only nine require it be installed across all departments, two don't and nine didn't answer. In a separate IAITAM survey of 177 companies, trade groups and government agencies, 92 percent of respondents said they supply mobile devices to employees, 72 percent said they have MDM software in place and 70 percent require such software be implemented across all their departments. "Most government agencies and corporations fall down on the job when it comes to Information Technology Asset Management ... in general. But mobile device management, including best-practice policies and application of MDM software, is a real blind spot," said IAITAM CEO Barbara Rembiesa in a statement. The association said last week that San Bernardino County, California, had paid for MDM software, but it was never installed on the device supplied to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two gunmen identified by the FBI in the Dec. 2 mass shooting. IAITAM said if the MDM software had been installed on Farook's phone, "investigators could have remotely and legally unlocked the phone and thereby circumvented the legal dispute now underway" (see 1603010013).