Mocana Enhances Mobile App Protection Solution

Mocana, a San Francisco-based company that focuses on mobile and smart device security solutions, unveiled new capabilities and security features to its security solution for protecting mobile apps from data leaks and other threats.

The latest version of Mocana’s Mobile App Protection (MAP) platform, Mocana MAP 2.4.2, offers new capabilities to make it easier for organizations to integrate with existing network infrastructures, enhanced data sharing between secured apps, and enables bring-your-own-device (BYOD) in compliance-focused environments, Mocana said Tuesday. Mobile App Protection helps enterprises accelerate mobility initiatives by automating iOS and Android app security.

The new features include app-level capabilities for access and authentication, secure communications, data protection, and contextual usage to enhance the enterprise’s ability to secure the confidential data on managed and unmanaged Android and iOS devices, Mocana said. Mocana MAP is largely invisible to end-users as the MAP-wrapped apps doesn’t change the user experience.

Mocana MAP 2.4.4 “demonstrates our ongoing commitment to delivering real-world app security that allows companies to mobilize their business processes in transformative ways,” Kurt Stammberger, CISSP and vice president of market development at Mocana, said in a statement.

This latest MAP release introduces remote data wipe, a smart firewall, geo-fencing, location masking, app expiration, and shared copy-and-paste. Remote data wipe would allow the IT staff to delete application-specific data of wrapped apps on both managed and unmanaged mobile devices when necessary, such as when the employee leaves the company or the device is lost or stolen. The smart firewall allows enterprises to implement a secure app connection to the corporate network using an SSL reverse proxy as an option to the existing per-app IPSec VPN policy, Mocana said.

Geo-fencing refers to a virtual perimeter placed around a geographic location in which an app can be used. Examples include restricting an app to only work on a university campus or military base. Locations masking, on the other hand, protects the user by preventing the app from obtaining the current location.

Shared-copy-and-paste allows users to copy and paste text from one MAP-wrapped app to another wrapped app on the same device.

Administrators can define a start and end date for an app, which controls when users actually have access to an app. This can be used to restrict access for contractors, or as a “failsafe” to ensure the app cannot be used by ex-employees, according to Mocana.

The app-shielding platform allows managers to point-and-click on the management interface to add new security policies to existing mobile apps without writing any new code, according to Mocana. With MAP, business units, IT departments, and app developers can customize security policies while still taking advantage of FIPS 140-2 encryptoin and standards-based communication protocols.

Once wrapped, the app and its data, as well as its connection to the enterprise networks, are secure.

Mocana said the latest version of the software is currently available to customers by a subscription or a perpetual license.