Over the holidays, a fair number of workers received shiny new smartphones — or, as David Pogue calls them, app phones — as gifts. Many more spent holiday vacation time downloading apps from mobile marketplaces onto their BlackBerrys, iPhones and ‘Droids.

By the time workers returned to the office in January, a bumper crop of newly installed mobile apps may have gained extensive access to business data and services. What can you do to stop them? Let’s consider “app-store” security implications and steps that employers can take to manage associated business risk.

Mobile device control: Enterprise control vs. personal use

RIM dominates the enterprise mobile market thanks to the tight control that employers can assert over BlackBerry smartphones. BlackBerry Enterprise Servers push employer-defined policies over the air to BlackBerrys at activation time. BlackBerry application policies are then used to install custom and third-party apps and control the resources that each can access. For example, policies can prevent apps from using phone or email services or accessing PIM data stored on the device. BlackBerry IT policies can also be set to block third-party app downloads altogether.