Striking The Perfect Balance Between Usability And Security

In just a short period of time, we’ve all become so reliant on our smartphones that life seems unimaginable without them. They’ve become an automatic extension of our office and personal lives. And we’ve become accustomed to the immediacy of all they can do and how they integrate with all the rest of our digital lives – email, phone, sms, social media, networks, Internet, apps and so much more. And because of this, they probably contain more extractable information about our business and personal lives than any other single source.  It’s a double-edged sword: convenience vs. vulnerability / usability vs. security.

The question then becomes, “What is the perfect balance between usability and security?” And maybe more importantly, “How can I get it?”

When looking at the mobile security market, vendors are taking four approaches: Prevention Experience; Dual Experience; Freedom Experience and the Perfect Balance Experience. Let’s take a quick look at each, but you can probably tell where this is going.

Prevention Experience. This approach uses an isolated mobile device that has been hardware and software hardened. Generally speaking, the phone is more like a feature phone with a touchscreen than an actual smartphone. Many features are restricted and the end user is unable to install applications without administrative permission. Some of these devices will only work within closed networks and cannot communicate with non-secure devices. This isn’t very conducive for business. Users of this type of approach will generally carry several phones – not very convenient.

Dual Experience. This is about creating two personas on a phone. It relies on the end user to constantly switch between the two personas, which is in essence analogous to asking the cat to guard the milk. End users are a point of vulnerability as they are prone to human error – such as forgetting to switch between personas.

Freedom Experience. The freedom approach gives the user almost full control over the device, including security. Usually this solution uses third-party applications to manage and create secure communications. With a freedom experience enabled smartphone, a user can use either a secure dialer application or the native OS dialer, thus initiating an unsecure call. Same option for applications, a user can install any application and manually set the permissions. This type of approach requires that the user be highly disciplined and have some degree of technical savvy to manage the device. Using this approach, almost all users will make mistakes when it comes to security decisions simply because of a lack of knowledge or because as human’s we prefer the easier and faster path.

Perfect Balance Experience. Here’s where a high-end hardened and secure device is combined with the complete functionality, flexibility and freedom of a smartphone. The idea is to maintain the user experience without compromising on security.

Kaymera has taken the perfect balance approach and has designed its solution with this as a core element. For example, the platform addresses and eliminates human-error vulnerabilities experienced in other approaches by connecting all users to a Command Cyber Center, which automatically manages all devices, pushes policies and application permissions, monitors risk levels, identifies and alerts to risky activity, detects security posture and more. This gives users the seamless smartphone experience they want, while at the same time boosting security. That’s how we create the perfect balance.