Argh stupid corporate security

[Scam]

So I've been looking forward to the promises of our corporate overlords to upgrade us all to Office 365. With the intention of finally being able to get rid of carrying two phones around all the time. I have a Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite and it's dual-sim and utterly brilliant. My work phone is some old iPhone trash that I've been keeping because it's so small (I think it's a 5 or something). Great, I thought. Gimme O365, I'll stick my corporate sim in the Xiaomi, get the O365 apps and off I go.

Of course not. I've been round the houses with the upgrade last week (well, the mobile part) and of course, what they didn't say anywhere was that they are only supporting Samsung and Apple devices "due to security". Aaarrgh

Is there any real reason for this? On Android, what could Samsung possibly offer in terms of security over any other manufacturer? Can I trick them into thinking my phone is a Samsung? lol

 

[Scam]

Well this thread may be of interest to you. Basically a lot of big organisations simply have an unofficial policy of no Chinese phone manufacturers.

Yeah I know all that is going on (even though Apple and Samsung are still made in china too lol).

 

[Scam]

I'm still trying to find an 'official' answer but a guy in infosec just told me the ability to use Samsung's is probably going away soon. They want to move away from allowing any Android phones full stop. Balls. How disgusting for a company our size to simply line the pockets of Apple.

Surely phones running stock Android (Android One, like my Xiaomi) can't be less secure than Apple phones?

I'm actually debating trying an iphone as a daily-driver/dual sim. But my life is in Google (Gmail, calendar, Keep, Home, Play Music). Can you turn an iPhone into something that would actually work well enough for all that?

 

[Scam]

At Red Hat, we need to install a Google device policy, essentially locking our phone down. Can't transfer any data between work and non work apps. I.e. if you have something saved on your personal drive, you can't open it in work sheets and vice versa.

But, it works on any Android phone

Yeah, we got pointed to MS Company Portal which essentially does the same thing. I got all the way through until it went "computer says no" and said the manufacturer was not approved. It's so infuriating

 

[Scam]

Tablets we have a max of iPads and Samsung, but again all enrolled into Airwatch, with restrictions in place.

Yeah we had Airwatch for a while but seems they've ditched it for this Company Portal? Looks a lot cleaner tbh. Is jamf another of these things too?

I thought about setting up my work email on my phone in the past but when they said it would need an immediate screen lock at 0 seconds and it also gave them the ability to remotely lock or wipe or even brick the phone I noped right out of that.

Honestly I couldn't care less about the ability for them to brick it. The beauty of being an Android user is everything (Photos, Contacts, Calendar, Keep etc.) is sync'd in the cloud. I'd be miffed but if it means I can carry one phone around (and use my unlimited company data in the 2nd sim slot ) then so be it.

But it sounds like you can transition over to iPhone, as all you Google needs are catered for on there iirc.

Well, can I though? I might write down all the apps I have that aren't free. I'm assuming all the Google apps are good to go on an iPhone.

Sounds like your IT are big Apple fans

So, I work in a large international film distributor. Give it 2-3 years and Apple are going to be one of our big rivals. Piling all this money into them seems a bit silly...

My issue really comes up as I am expected to be contactable out of hours. Not "on call" or anything that regimented, but it's the media industry, things happen out of hours etc. It's part of the way the world works. Say last weekend I went to a music festival. Not taking a bag or anything, so I either take the risk of forwarding my work phone and hope nothing urgent comes up (because I can't see emails or actually do anything), or carrying it around as well which when you're at a music festival with no bag, is not ideal!