BYOD security: iOS vs Android vs WP8.1

[jaydee]

Could someone explain at a semi-high level, the security differences between the three mobile OS platforms? My workplace, a very large global corporation which has a global workforce of tens of thousands across dozens of countries has a BYOD program. I bought a Lumia 520 that runs Win8.1 to get on the network for email, calendar, Lync, etc, but it does not have a data plan, its only access is through wifi.

I noticed the corporate policy is, that only iOS devices have access to the actual network. Android and Windows users can only access the guest network for security reasons. This is kind of annoying because I have to relogin via a webpage everytime I go into and out of wifi range of the guest network (and autocomplete doesn't seem to be enabled on that webpage), so I am particularly curious why iOS is "safe" enough to let on the actual network and the other mobile platforms are not.

Thanks!

 

[xSauronx]

my guess would be they want to limit supporting a ridiculous number of devices. im frustrated having iphone users when i have no iphone for a reference, and having many types of android phones to support [fortunately, my environment is small, there might be 50 approved phone users]. i love android, but the interface is slightly different on every stinking model and it makes setting up exchange with someone over the phone a pain.

the nice thing about different iphone models is that, whatever OS they run, the layout is the same so i have googled notes for doing things and its always accurate. if i had to handle thousands of peoples devices, id honestly probably just want iphones, too. unless the company was willing to always, perhaps, buy galaxy note phones for everyone, or something like that.

/just a guess, and sort of a rant

it might also be really likely that the execs all, or mostly, have iphones, and it is sort of hard to tell those people "no, you keep your phone off the network. yes, just keep using the guest wifi"

 

[joutlaw]

iOS makes it very easy to push configuration profiles that could include the WiFi security settings. If you use RADIUS or LDAP it could implement those into the WiFi authentication through the configuration profile. It can also push VPN configs to those devices with similar options.

I don't think Android has anything to that level - maybe Samsung SAFE. Not sure about Windows Phone, but I don't think it does.