Mobile computing a trending topic for federal employees

As it is in many other sectors, mobile computing is becoming a "new normal" for federal employees, with mobile device management being a significant factor in keeping government data secure.

CDW Government recently announced the results of the first Federal Mobility Report, which assesses how federal employees are utilizing their mobile devices.

The results of the report revealed that many are using personal devices to complete work-related assignments and nearly all of the federal employees who contributed to the study reported that they believe mobile devices make them more productive. The majority of respondents said mobility will improve citizen service.

"Employees increasingly expect to be able to work anywhere and at any time," said Bob Kirby, vice president of federal government for CDW-G. "Agencies responded first by deploying mobile devices, and now they are enabling use of personal devices. And the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is likely to continue, following the Obama administration's November 2011 executive order that asked agencies to limit the number of IT devices they issue to employees, including mobile devices, in order to reduce costs."

The report, which was based on the answers provided by 414 federal employees, paints a picture of current trends in mobility, how agency IT professionals are managing mobile devices and the steps they are taking to secure federal information.

Agencies are beginning to provide good device protection to employees to prevent a breach or virus from compromising security, with 85 percent providing data security policies and 84 percent requiring data security training for individuals using their mobile devices for business purposes.

"Federal employees - just like those in other industries - access a wide variety of data in the course of their jobs, from financial information to employee and taxpayer records to email and social networking accounts," Kirby said. "Employees understand the need to keep private information just that - private. But as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, they need a full suite of security tools to help them."

The National Security Agency is just one of the government agencies that recently announced they will allow employees to use their own mobile devices to access networks, which the agency believes will increase efficiency among workers. The NSA stated it will reach out to private sector tech companies to provide top-flight MDM solutions to safeguard the highly sensitive data its employees must be able to securely access on the go, according to InformationWeek.