How to Protect Your Business Mobile Devices Against Data Security Risks
December 27, 2017
The world is going mobile. From both ends of the mobile device equation. The business/retail world increasingly caters to mobile customers and device makers continue to add new features to them.
Unfortunately, increased use of mobile devices by your employees can expose your business to increased data security risks. From logging into insecure networks, to an email sent in error because the bus hit a bump, the potential consequences of the security risks due to increased mobile device usage are just as significant as any.
Here are just a few ways for your business to reduce the corporate data security risks posed by mobile device usage.
Update Your Password Policy
It’s imperative that you have a strong password on any mobile device employees use to access corporate data. The U.S. government recently changed its recommendations for creating a strong password. Make sure you have an up-to-date password policy in place and that it’s enforced.
Never Login to Unsecure Networks
Mobile devices mean that your workforce can end up working anywhere at any time. But accessing corporate data from Starbucks means that anything the employee enters into the mobile device, like a password, and anything he or she views, can be seen by anyone else in the Starbucks who has the minimal amount of knowledge it takes to hack the network.
Basically, employees should login only from secure home networks and your business locations.
Keep Apps Up-to-Date
When apps are downloaded, they very often require permission to access lots of different data on your device, including files, contacts and images. Legitimate apps have legitimate reasons for these permissions. But malicious apps can abuse them. The updates you get to mobile apps often include security revisions, so your employees should update apps often. And sometimes, even when an app was not malicious when it was downloaded, it can become so afterward, so it’s also a good practice to regularly review apps on mobile devices, review their permissions and weed out any that are not used or that are found to be malicious.
Keeping your corporate data secure is increasingly difficult in an increasingly mobile world. To learn more about how to protect your company, call us here at Papersavers.