Leveraging mobile devices to enforce restricted area security

Apparatus associated with a mobile device, comprising:

• a processor;
• computer memory holding computer program instructions executed by the processor to enforce a security policy in association with access by a user to a restricted area by:
• responsive to grant of an authorization associated with a user's permitted access to the restricted area, activating a management agent on the mobile device by receiving an access code, executing a request and response interaction with a gatekeeper by which the access code is provided to the gatekeeper, receiving a pass code upon a verification of the access code, and receiving and installing the management agent on the mobile device, the management agent being activated without requiring direct user input to the mobile device to activate the management agent and wherein the pass code encodes information identifying one or more control settings;
• responsive to activation of the management agent on the mobile device, automatically instantiating, via the management agent, one or more control settings on the mobile device according to an instance of the security policy that is based at least in part on a risk profile of the mobile device, the risk profile of the mobile device being based on an application installed on the mobile device and currently active;
• and
• controlling, by the management agent, the mobile device according to the one or more control settings to enforce the security policy while the user is located within the restricted area.

A computer program product in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium for use in data processing system, the computer program product holding computer program instructions which, when executed by the data processing system, perform a method to enforce a security policy in association with access by a user to a restricted area, the method comprising:

• responsive to grant of an authorization associated with a user's permitted access to the restricted area, activating a management agent on a mobile device by receiving an access code, executing a request and response interaction with a gatekeeper by which the access code is provided to the gatekeeper, receiving a pass code upon a verification of the access code, and receiving and installing the management agent on the mobile device, the management agent being activated without requiring direct user input to the mobile device to activate the management agent and wherein the pass code encodes information identifying one or more control settings;
• responsive to activation of the management agent on the mobile device, automatically instantiating, via the management agent, one or more control settings on the mobile device according to an instance of the security policy that is based at least in part on a risk profile of the mobile device, the risk profile of the mobile device being based on an application installed on the mobile device and currently active;
• controlling, by the management agent, the mobile device according to the one or more control settings to enforce the security policy while the user is located within the restricted area.