The advent of 5G technology has made everything convenient. It’s no longer surprising to see businesses take advantage of the growing smartphone use. But this convenience also has drawbacks, as it can make your sensitive data susceptible to cybercrimes. Mobile security threats are on the rise, accounting for more than 40 percent of security incidents. This makes evident that using smartphones for business should also be paired with effective and rigorous measures to minimize cyber threats. Entrepreneurs often protect their business interests by working with trusted providers like doola to manage business registrations. However, not many are as aggressive in mitigating cyber attacks. Luckily, there’s something you can do, so this won’t happen to your organization.
Perks of Mobile Devices in the Workplace
With employees working from different locations, smartphones provide the flexibility they need to increase productivity. The use of laptops improved business mobility. With smartphones as an additional resource, business flexibility and mobility have been achievable more than ever. With the latest mobile features, employees can easily access their work email and apps to do their job efficiently. This practice dramatically benefits executives and knowledge workers. It allows them to respond to urgent emails or approve projects while on the go. With these benefits in mind, it’s critical to also factor in enhancing the security measures for mobile use.
Choosing Between Corporate-Owned vs. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Before establishing a mobile policy, decide whether the company or the user will provide the devices. Both have their distinct strengths and weaknesses that you need to consider. Corporate-owned devices make it easier to enforce a security policy since you have control of the device. But with BYOD devices, users have more choice and flexibility. The device ownership model doesn’t determine the level of security of a company’s mobile policy. Instead, it relies on the efficiency of the controls placed by your IT team.
1. Set up mobile device management (MDM) as your first line of defense
Mobile device management (MDM) software allows security officers to manage the security policies of mobile devices. By establishing an MDM, it’s easier to manipulate the configuration and security settings of company smartphones. It becomes easier to protect business information since you can set rules for device usage within the organization. MDM is quite a flexible tool that allows admins to enforce security compliances controls, such as:
Allowlist and blocklist applicationsCertificate-based authenticationData wipe and complete reset of devicesData loss preventionEmail configurationEnforce updatesJailbreak, root detection, and remediationPasscode and device encryptionSingle sign-on (SSO)
2. Establish a clear mobile device security policy
Before you hand out smartphones to your employees, provide clear rules about acceptable use. And in case an employee violates the policy, appropriate disciplinary actions should be in place. People in your organization should understand the security risks of using smartphones and why security measures are essential. BYOD Policy If your employees choose to use their smartphones, a BYOD security plan should be in place. It gets complicated with BYOD environments. IT admins may schedule a prompt for updates. However, it’s up to the employees to allow it. Still, a compliance policy outlining the consequence of not doing such actions will force users to follow. For example, an admin can create a notification for an employee to update his device. Users who don’t adhere to the security policies may have limited or no access to corporate email and other apps.
3. Choose strong passwords
A single email address can be associated with countless online accounts. Unfortunately, most users reuse similar passwords to protect them all. This lack of effort to choose passwords carefully is what hackers rely on to steal company data. To ensure that passwords for company smartphones are hard to guess, follow these tips:
Require passwords to include uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters, and be at least eight characters long. Don’t let employees use names of children or spouses and number sequences like “12345” in a password. It’ll only take a hacker a few minutes to get this information on social media.Compel employees to change their smartphone’s login password every three months.Upon logging in to company apps, implement two-factor authentication to verify identity.
4. Back up company data regularly
Similar to how you always back up computer data in the office, do the same for your company’s mobile devices. If an employee’s device gets lost, stolen, or broken, business data remains safe and accessible. Employees will use different smartphone apps to get their jobs done. IT admins should enable data loss prevention policies to prevent corporate data from being copied and accessed by unauthorized apps.
5. Monitor device compliance
Even with an MDM policy, it might not be enough to detect and prevent attacks from suspicious applications and phishing. Through the years, there’s been an increase in phishing attacks on mobile devices. Even tech giant Facebook has been hit by a major phishing scam. Look into mobile threat defense (MTD) platforms to identify suspicious behaviors, detect attacks over Wi-Fi, and actively search for malware. To prevent hacks, you can remedy issues by turning off the device’s Wi-Fi or cellular data.
6. Test your strategy for mobile device security
You shouldn’t wait for a cyber attack to discover whether your security measures are working. Instruct your IT team to run security audits frequently. For foolproof tests, you can hire outside tech experts to do penetration tests and pinpoint weaknesses in your defenses. Remember, testing tells you only what you need to improve. Continue planning a security program, and take note of the results to create a mitigation plan. Every failure or success is a learning opportunity to improve your overall business security.
7. Keep employees updated about your policies.
There’s no point in establishing the best mobile device management policies if you don’t keep users in the loop. The users hold the key to success. Training and keeping them informed on current cyber threats is crucial. Help your employees understand the significance of updating their devices and how it can affect corporate data. This should aid them in making the right decisions to practice device security.
The Bottomline
Smartphones are the most vulnerable and least regulated tools. Most businesses fail to consider that once the device leaves the office, the threat of a security breach puts their sensitive data at risk. Think about how you can securely manage devices and protect company data. All while ensuring that the process is simple and minimally invasive for your employees.
