Symantec Launches Standalone Mobile Assessment Service

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company unveiled the Mobile Security Assessment Suite Monday. The service expands on the more limited offering for mobile security within the Security Program Assessment, which covers an organization's entire system: desktops, laptops, servers and mobile devices.

With organizations deploying an increasing number of smartphones and tablets, Symantec expects additional revenue from a separate service for those devices. The assessment determines the effectiveness of a customer's current security strategy and then helps an organization build a roadmap for improvements over the next 12 to 24 months.

Among the areas covered in the service are compliance, identity management, inventory management, data loss prevention, vulnerability management, data encryption and backup. Symantec also can evaluate the security of in-house or third-party apps running on a mobile device. The estimated price for the service is $40,000. That number can go much higher, depending on the number of applications evaluated and the complexity of the assessment.

For resellers, the service can generate more business by pinpointing where an organization could improve security through the deployment of new or upgraded Symantec products, Mike Garvin, lead security advisory analyst at Symantec, says. "We would utilize the relationship with the client and the VAR to get them engaged in moving into the selling cycle."