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SOS! The Summer of Security is Here. Stay Safe Out There

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 17:58:48 Z

We’re sounding the alarm.

Summer safety is usually all about life jackets, pool floaties, outfitting your boat with a carbon monoxide detector and slathering on plenty of SPF.

I have one more thing to add to your list this summer:

Security to protect your people, your brand and your data.

In 2020, the business world struggled with the abrupt shift to remote work.

Corners were cut. Compromises were made. Business leaders, IT staff and employees alike did the best they could with what they had.

That’s totally understandable.

But it’s not 2020 anymore. We’re already halfway through 2021.

Now we know better and we can do better.

This needs to be the Summer of Security.

Or as we’re calling it, S.O.S.

Because we’re sounding the alarm.

Cutting corners won’t cut it anymore.

Believe me – I know that it probably feels like you barely have your feet under you, and nothing feels normal. The last thing you want to hear is that you should be stressed out about something new.

Here’s the thing: This is one situation where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Or, more accurately, a moderate investment in security that reflects this new business landscape can be more than made up for in increased productivity, employee engagement, and prevention of security threats.

We’ve entered the age of the Everywhere Workplace. We all can see that the traditional office structure isn’t coming back in the way it used to be.

Employees have realized the value of remote work, and even if you aren’t embracing a full-blown remote work structure, chances are that you’ll end up with more flexibility and hybrid work than you did before.

That change means your security needs to change. The Everywhere Workplace demands an everywhere solution that makes it simple to discover, manage, secure and service endpoints wherever they are. No longer is data tucked neatly behind a perimeter. No longer are employees working exclusively on corporate-issued devices in the same place on a local network.

Endpoints are just the beginning. The right solution should protect your brand, your people and your data, with always-on security and continuous threat detection and remediation.

This sounds complex, but it doesn’t need to be. Unified management and automation can simplify extraordinary IT complexity and actually make your security posture more straightforward than it was before – even when it feels like everything has changed.

Don’t wait until fall.

Don’t wait until “things calm down.”

Don’t wait until you see where everything shakes out with remote vs. hybrid vs. in-person work.

Security threats (phishing, hacking, inadvertent exposure) rose astronomically during the pandemic and threat actors are spending this summer getting bolder and more sophisticated. That means you should spend this summer getting ahead of them.

You don’t have to have everything figured out yet. You don’t even need to know where your employees are going to be working. You can still set up a solution so that they can be productive, engaged and secure wherever they are.

Don’t worry. It’s not all on your shoulders. At Ivanti, we’re here to help. Reach out to us today to learn about how we can help you secure your organization and employees.

MobileIron (acquired by Ivanti) Wins Two Prestigious Marketing Awards!

Thu, 20 May 2021 16:03:51 Z

There are some marketing campaigns that just work. They resonate with their audience, they add value, they’re interesting and topical – but they’re also rare. In 2020, the MobileIron (now Ivanti) communications team launched a new campaign to tell the story of the Everywhere Enterprise (a precursor to Ivanti’s Everywhere Workplace). We wanted to paint a picture of the current reality and the future workplace, while creatively showcasing how our products were perfectly suited to enable and secure that new world. Flash forward to 2021 and I’m thrilled to share that not one, but TWO of MobileIron’s 2020 creative marketing campaigns were selected as winners in two of the industry’s most prestigious marketing awards programs!

Our “Phishing with Cookies” campaign was selected as the winner in the North America Business-To-Business Marketing category in the SABRE Awards, and our “Everywhere Enterprise” marketing campaign was selected as a Gold Award winner in the NYX Awards.

A sweet campaign

Last year, we saw cloud, mobile devices and changing work habits make it exponentially more difficult for IT to protect corporate networks. These events, accelerated by COVID-19, gave us a platform to discuss the threats and challenges an enterprise with a remote workforce needed to address. We developed the “Everywhere Enterprise” theme to illustrate our evolution from a unified endpoint management (UEM) provider to the center of enterprise security – providing enterprises with the security infrastructure they needed in a zero trust world.

To pave the way for our Everywhere Enterprise message, we issued a survey that revealed how C-suite executives are one of the weakest links in mobile device security. We also arranged media opportunities on mobility-related topics like 5G, BYOD and election security to further amplify the Everywhere Enterprise theme.

When MobileIron released its new phishing protection product, we came up with a creative strategy to stand apart in a crowded market and highlight unusual vectors for phishing attacks that can put users, their data, devices and organizations at risk. We tempted media and influencers with hand-delivered sugar cookies bearing a QR code iced onto their surface but with no note or explanation. We relied on the curiosity of recipients who could scan the code through the cookies’ packaging and, after doing so, got directed to a landing page explaining the risks of following links (and QR codes) from an unknown source. The page also offered one-click booking for follow-up briefings, and extended to social media, with scannable ‘virtual cookies’ shared via Twitter cards. Our treats were scanned by an overwhelming 97% of those who received them – most of them scanned multiple times (one recipient scanned over 20 times, we assume showing their friends and family).

To further amplify the messaging from this campaign, we released another survey and a corresponding video on the security risks associated with QR codes, which found that three out of four people cannot distinguish between a legitimate and malicious QR code, among other jarring statistics. The findings of this survey were featured in numerous publications and outlets, leveraged by our sales and marketing teams, and spurred further creative ideas. Clearly, we hit on a topic that resonated!

The impact

Our thought leadership initiatives and creative marketing campaigns resulted in 100+ articles over the span of 2020, including mentions in Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the BBC. The campaign also helped drive business impact. With the Phishing for Cookies campaign, MobileIron saw a 25% increase in product trials from June (when the campaign launched) to July, representing the highest period of the quarter by 66.7%. The company also saw a 43% increase in new Annual Recurring Revenue Pipeline from the prior period, up from $820k to $1.18M since the campaign launched. And in September of 2020, MobileIron announced that it had been acquired by Ivanti.

What’s next

At Ivanti, we are continuing to develop creative marketing campaigns that resonate with people. We recently announced our bold brand identity and mission to make the Everywhere Workplace possible.

Case in point: Right now, we’re currently hosting an #EverywhereWorkplace social challenge! From treetops to treadmills, poolside to pillow forts, we want to see YOUR most creative remote workspace. Follow us on social, share a photo of your work setup with the hashtag #EverywhereWorkplace and tag us for the chance to win amazing prizes. Tune in each week during May for a new challenge.

We also recently announced the results of a consumer sentiment study, which revealed that QR code usage continues to rise in popularity. We conducted this study as a follow up to the September 2020 MobileIron report to understand how consumer attitudes and usage of QR codes have evolved over the last year. As the need for touchless transactions increased due to COVID-19, 83% of respondents stated that they used a QR code to make a payment (or complete a financial transaction) for the first time.

Download the report to get more insight into our QR code security forecast for 2021. And, most importantly, find out how IT organizations can respond to security threats by improving consumer awareness and adopting a zero trust mobile security platform to protect against a new wave of cyberattacks.