"Password required for work space" in IT Policy. What does it really mean?

I'm setting up BES 12 in preparation for our migration from a very old 4.1.4 version. I've been told that BES "work space" requires a password on the device and the maximum time for that password is 1 hour. This is incredibly burdensome for our users. We never had passwords before and the idea of having to unlock the phone every hour seems like overkill. Maybe we've just got to get with the times...

In BES 12 in the IT Policy there is a check box for "Password required for work space". This setting gives the impression that I can remove the requirement for this password if I uncheck this box. This is not what I have heard so far, that if you install works space you have to have a password. Does anyone know the true story on this?

Roveer

I could do a simple test on our BES but i would say you be crazy not having password for work space. Without password how do you plan to protect work content. If anyone looses their bb, without password anyone can read, send, reply to emails and see other contents. Remember onsite BES 12 will give your bb to be on your company network. If the users use work drive they'll be able to access files on the file server.

I did a little more digging and found that by looking at the context help (hovering over the element) that the password required option only applies to personal, work space - corporate and personal, work space regulated so that answers my question about why it's not working for my work space only configuration.

As far as your other things you point out, we do not plan on any VPN or allow it on our company network. Our BB's are for email, contacts, calendar and notes.

The password debate is one I am going to have to confront with the boss. Maybe unlocking the phone 7-8 times a day is something that we'll get used to. Especially when we set the pw to 0000.

Unless there is some way to over ride work space only mode to remove the password 1 hour password requirement I guess we will be living with it. Our email is important to us but there's really nothing in there that needs protecting. The main reason we use BES is that we decided to host our email in house to keep away from getting hacked like so many are. We regularly receive emails from our partners about being in the hospital in a foreign country and needing money (address book hijacking). We don't have those issues. We also keep a large volume of email 20+GB. Trying to host that would be difficult and cost prohibitive. We also use BES because it's an outbound solution from our network and required no additional inbound ports. I have no time to protect our MS Server against attacks so no inbound ports. Yes I understand that it would be required for android or IOS but we are sticking with BB hardware for the physical keyboard.

I appreciate BES's many security levels but I'm finding their choice of required minimims on some items to be a problem for our environment. Why not give the full range of options, if companies want to require it, then fine, they set it, if they don't then fine, they don't I'm guessing it may have to do with some security certification they may have gotten on the product.

I don't believe I can even explore the other options (personal, WS - corporate & regulated), because I don't think they support SMS logging which we really need. So BES 12 is not giving me similar features to their older software. That is frustrating.

What I need is a SMS Logging, no password required solution like i have today and an unlocked BB world. BES 12 is not allowing me that. And unless I'm doing it all wrong, Personal, Work Space is a confusing proposition at very best. Always switching back to personal, than having to unlock and enter work space, different icons in both. Multiple swipes to get to your email. Today we hit the mail icon and your there.
Roveer

As I stated in the post you created last night. You can setup workspace without requiring a password. The workspace locks but it will unlock just by going into it.

Posted via CB10

Work and personal - regulated supports sms logging! Hover over the option in the it policy and it says it clear as day.

Posted via CB10

The whole idea of a work space is to protect company data. If you are not locking it, might as well not use any MDM solution.

Totally agree. This goes against all best practices but it is possible to do if you wanted to do it.

Posted via CB10

I'm going to give this a try and see if it fits our needs. This may also fix my BB world issue as well. Thanks

Roveer

Roveer, this is stating the obvious but bear in mind the workspace will only lock when not in use for an hour. I find with my device that I'm only having to type a password max 2-3 times a day - not a large burden at all. Depends on how often your users check their phones!

You can also leave password requirements to just minimum 4 characters which allows for Simple Password to be enabled in workspace which uses large on screen number pad

I had similar arguments for upper management when we went from bes5 bb7 devices to bes12 bb10, but they have accepted my 30 minute lock to keep our devices and data protected. Though it may be a bit of a nuisance to have to unlock sporadically, having a jerk friend, thief, or even just a small child grab your phone and start messaging people randomly or stealing customer info can be much more 'annoyance' long term. 1hr is crazy long too, I personally feel 30 minutes is over liberal but was a concession

Posted via CB with my Passport to productivity

OK, I set up my test phone as personal / work space - regulated as suggested by another post. I've got my SMS logging and my unlocked BB World, I do get the "tap to unlock" after it's timed out but it's not really that bad. One extra step to tap to get your work email to appear. It's a little confusing when you have another email account defined because if you chose to display all your accounts in the hub your work email is missing until you unlock. This won't be a problem for my boss as he only has the work account. Now we will move on to the debate as to whether to actually put a pw on even if its a 4 digit simple pw. At this point this is the best I'm going to get it and eventually we will get used to all the new icons and features. Thanks for all the help in getting through all of the configuration. I agree with Rodney, if you check your phone frequently than you'll be unlocking less often.

Roveer