There’s no doubt that mobile devices have changed the way we do business. We use our mobile devices to:
- Deploy our social media campaigns and posts
- Research company data
- Participate in business meetings
- View presentations
- Communicate with clients via text, email, phone call and social media
- Transport files and data to print it out; and to manipulate the data in other ways on larger devices
- And so much more
Because of this, business owners must get a hold on mobile device security to keep corporate data and communications safe. Managing an effective mobile workforce means that you can experience the numerous benefits of incorporating mobile technology into your business practices, without experiencing any of the risks. To do this, you must determine whether workers will bring their own devices, (BYOD), or whether you will provide corporate owned personally enabled, (COPE), devices. And you must have control over what happens when your team loses a device for any reason, (including theft, misplacement or device malfunction).
- Do you have a protocol in place for when an employee loses a device? Have you put this policy in writing and trained your staff on how to carry it out? Are you sure they understand how important it is to follow the policy and asked them to sign a copy of it, acknowledging that they understand the consequences of not following your instructions?
- BYOD’s are historically harder to manage, so many owners and managers opt for COPE devices. COPE devices give you greater security control because you choose the devices and program them yourself.
- Do you require password protection on all devices your staff uses regardless of whether your workers are using BYOD or COPE devices?
- Can you remotely wipe company devices and confirm that the data is gone permanently.
- Do all company devices lock after they’ve been inactive for short periods, (like 10 minutes or less)?
- Is there a company gateway where workers can manage their own devices? Employees can usually access these gateways from other computers if necessary or their own devices, and they can initiate remote security steps themselves. For example, they can quickly lock a device they’ve left at a picnic without having to alert a manager on a weekend. This gives the employee time to go back and get the device and ensure the data was safe while he or she was en route.
- Do you have appropriate backup measures in place so that if a device is lost completely, for whatever reason, you can boot up a brand new device and populate it with the backed up information immediately?
Contact us. We can help you put the proper mobile security measures in place much quicker than you could ever do it on your own. In today’s increasingly complex technological landscape, it’s important to begin managing and securing your mobile devices as quickly as possible.