Jamf cybersecurity advancements: Mobile Threat Defense, Data Policy and Private Access

For those that have yet to read the blog or view the presentations that make up the Jamf Security Cloud, do go right ahead to get a better understanding of the state of security for your Apple devices. It’s ok, we’ll be right here when you get back! Those that have are familiar though will recognize the underlying theme of this year’s JNUC presentations: advanced threat protection necessary for maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture, to secure your endpoints amidst the changes brought about by the shift to a hybrid or remote work environment globally.

Continuing with the focus of this blog, Adam Boynton, Sales Manager, Jamf, presents Threat Defense*: Protect your mobile user services and organizational data from malicious intent, sums up the point in one short sentence: “The enterprise perimeter has fallen”.

For those that have migrated or are migrating to a hybrid or remote work environment, you’ve likely already come to terms with this very real fact as users are no longer safely nestled behind the company firewall and other security appliances. However, for those that haven’t made the leap (yet) or are looking into the solutions to be able to pivot, take a moment to let that set in.

This doesn’t mean that the proverbial wheel must be reinvented, rather consider it more like choosing the right tools for the job. As part of its feature set, mobile threat defense provides protection against phishing and other forms of mobile security threats. As outlined below, it simply does not detect these types of threats but goes further by actively preventing several varieties of threats from infecting your devices and compromising end-user data:

• Device Security: Detect and prevent on-device threats including malware and vulnerabilities
• Internet Security: Prevent web-based cyber threats including phishing, ransomware and data leaks
• Conditional Access: Real-time contextual policy dictates access to sensitive data resources

Pivoting slightly but still entrenched firmly within enforcing device management & configurations via policy, we present the Jamf Data Policy*: Enforce acceptable usage policies session. Our host, Suzan Sakarya, Senior Sales Director, Jamf, delves into implementing and managing network access control policies through the Data Policy* solution to ensure acceptable usage, eliminate shadow IT and block unwanted/unauthorized content on your organization’s Apple devices.

Sakarya provides some use cases that apply to a variety of business industries and targets some key issues that have presented themselves in greater numbers due to the rise in remote/hybrid work environments, such as:

• Content filtering: Extend filtering policies from Macs to mobile devices
• Roaming travel: Leverage roaming profiles to control connectivity costs
• Network access control: Manage data pools to prevent overages
• Student safety: Safe Internet access over Wi-Fi and cellular connections

In addition to the policy-based controls, Sakarya also touches upon the helpful admin and user alerts present within Data Policy*. In concert with gaining usage insights over-usage metrics, enabling worker choice programs while upholding data security policies, allowing organizations to customize policy enforcement to best suit their needs through flexible, yet powerful tools.

For our final presentation in this series, we join Matt Vlasach, VP of Product, Wandera, Jamf, for an overview of Jamf Private Access* in Deep dive: Zero trust network access. In addition, we dive into the architecture behind the software and culminate with a deep dive into how it works to protect endpoints that belong to your organization.

The key takeaways about Jamf Private Access* are:

• Cloud-based access is a high-performance, easy-to-use remote access platform with end-to-end layer 3 routing, easy-to-use web-based management and designed for global scalability + high availability
• Zero Trust (ZTNA) is next-generation network access security architecture that adheres to the zero trust framework using managed and conditional access for real-time enforcement

Vlasach also dives into the benefits between leveraging various Jamf technologies in the portfolio, specifically in this case referring to Threat Defense*, Private Access* and Data Policy*, enabling the Jamf Security Cloud platform to expand the capabilities of each to form integrated threat detection and response workflows for actively monitoring, detecting, preventing, mitigating and reporting security threats in real time.

This is a good place to mention that Vlasach does a superb job of extensively diving into Private Access* with a wealth of information regarding its capabilities and underpinnings that speak to the heart of its aim of protecting your endpoints from modern threats - known and unknown alike. Furthermore, an extensive real-time demonstration rounds out the visual representation of what admins and users alike can expect when leveraging Private Access* to secure endpoints, remote communications and gather detailed event logs that provide granular data relating to application usage, network traffic analysis, Internet connection metering and security protocol use.

*As of February 2023, Jamf Data Policy and Jamf Threat Defense capabilities are included with Jamf Protect. Jamf Private Access capabilities are included with Jamf Connect.