Telecommunications

The telecommunications industry is exploding. In 2010, cell phone usage reached over 5 billion globally, and rates continue to rise. With the vast number of new users, telecommunications companies have grown their internal sales forces, support teams, and operations. They have also become warehouses of sensitive, personal identification data for their customers, including names, credit card or bank account numbers, email and mailing addresses, and even social security numbers.

The combination of internal personnel with access to critical customer data, the customer data itself, which is regulated by compliance standards like PCI, and the distributed, global nature of telecommunications offices add up to a challenging IT situation for administrators and compliance specialists alike. Administrators must also safeguard their companies’ proprietary plans and software, elevating the criticality of a healthy permissions structure. Finally, as it natural for a telecommunications organization, their users are early-adopter and high-frequency users of mobile devices, which must be monitored to ensure both their function and security.