The increasing trend of mobile and remote working may offer a variety of benefits – including improved productivity, employee retention, and flexible work schedules – but it also increases the security challenge for your IT department. If employees are accessing the network and storing sensitive data on their mobile device, what happens if they lose that device, if it’s is stolen, or if the employee leaves the company? You need a mobile device strategy to reduce your risks of the anywhere, anytime, any device culture of the modern-day workplace.
What’s a Mobile Device Strategy?
When is the last time you left home without your mobile phone? Mobile devices have become part of our everyday life, both at home and at work. While useful tools for communicating and keeping up with work responsibilities on the go, there are many risks associated with mobile devices used to access or save sensitive information. More than 32 percent of IT professionals are worried about mobile device compromise. [1]
Employee mobile devices are basically moving targets that are used outside the safety of the organization’s firewalls, spam and content filtering, and threat management tools that keep risks at a minimum within the workplace. Once your employees step outside the perimeter of safety, they’re exposed. You need to take steps to keep that exposure to risk and loss to a minimum.
A mobile device strategy provides your organization with the ability to:
- Control which devices and which employees have access to sensitive information
- Wipe out all saved information on a mobile device and remove access abilities in the event the device is lost or stolen, or when an employee leaves the company
- Require multi-factor authentication requirements
- Enforce a PIN or password to unlock the device for basic security
- Detect mobile malware to reduce risks of it spreading to company network
Risks to Organizations Without a Mobile Device Strategy
If you’re among the 9.25 percent of organizations without a mobile device strategy in place [1], you could be the next victim of a data breach – not to mention possible fines for non-compliance with HIPPA and other regulations requiring that all data is encrypted and capable of being destroyed in case the device is compromised.
Reducing Mobile Device Risks
You can minimize many risks with a mobile device strategy that includes a virtual desktop infrastructure deployment. This allows employees to access their desktop environment from their mobile devices from any location, but eliminates many of the security concerns because the device doesn’t actually store any corporate applications or data. If a device is lost or stolen, there would be no access to sensitive information.
Fidelus Technologies, based out of New York City is a Professional and Managed Information Technology Services company focused on customer success and business efficiency . Our services provide seamless networking, data center, wireless, security and unified communications expertise for medium and enterprise sized businesses. We have a consultative life cycle approach that includes requirements gathering, assessments, solution design, planning, project management, engineering, adoption and evolution (training) services to fully support the IT needs of your organization.
If you’re looking for more information on how Fidelus can help with your organizations IT technology, please contact us here. To access our in-depth analysis on how IT teams across the country are using IT services and products withing their organization click below.
[1] 2017 U.S. IT Services Report Sponsored by Fidelus.
