Over the years, mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops have been extensively used to get work done, primarily due to these powerful devices facilitating mobility for workforces.
Workplace trends from 2022 show that most organizations have moved on from the work-from-home (WFH) era, inviting employees back to the traditional workspaces while still providing them the flexibility to work remotely as needed.
This comfortable middle ground of hybrid work supported by mobile devices has not only resulted in more distributed workforces across the globe, with employees accessing corporate data from wherever they may be through an array of devices but has also expanded these organizations’ attack surfaces.
With it, we’ve seen a boom in security threats, with bad actors waiting around every corner for their chance to steal sensitive corporate data.
Protecting your organization from these threats may sound daunting, but there are proactive security measures you can implement to make it easy. Here are a few ways you can secure your organization’s mobile devices:
- Enhance the first layer of security: Setting solid passwords is one way to ensure work devices and the data on them are protected from unauthorized access, which is why so many compliance regulations require sensitive information to be password protected at all times. Passwords should be complex and reset regularly to make it harder for bad actors to brute force their way into the device.
- Minimize the risk of data leaks: To prevent sensitive data from leaving the device or moving from corporate apps to third-party apps, applying a few DLP policies might help. Restricting device clipboard functionalities, blocking physical connections like USBs and portable drives, and restricting the automatic data backup to cloud services can help ensure your organization’s data remains inaccessible to unauthorized individuals.
- Secure data in transit: It is also essential to ensure that employees accessing corporate data do so in a secure way, even if they work remotely. To secure data from man-in-the-middle attacks, you can automate VPN connections when work apps are launched and have work devices connect only to trusted Wi-Fi networks.
- Lock down devices: If business-critical devices are remotely deployed to serve a single purpose, you may find these devices more vulnerable to misuse and security threats. To protect these devices, it is essential to restrict any device functions or native apps that aren’t necessary. For instance, if you have a tablet functioning as a self-service kiosk, this device must be locked down to run only the needed self-service portal webpage or app, with the rest of the device functions inaccessible to users.
- Block malicious payloads: Malicious payloads can enter a device through various avenues, including apps, websites, and emails. To avoid these threats, restrict the download of apps from third-party sources, block access to untrustworthy sites, and encourage employees to exercise caution when accessing links in emails and while downloading any attachments.
- Eliminate vulnerable devices: Devices that are outdated, unpatched, jailbroken, or rooted can prove to be easy avenues of entry for security threats. To keep bad actors at bay, ensure your devices run on the latest version of their OS and that their apps are up to date. It is best to ensure that only trusted devices can access the corporate network and that these devices also have an antivirus app installed on them.
Simplifying Mobile Device Security
Manually ensuring each mobile device in your organization has all these security measures implemented can be incredibly time-consuming, especially if you are dealing with many devices spread across multiple locations.
With a comprehensive mobile device management tool like Mobile Device Manager Plus, you can bring your organization’s Apple, Android, Windows, and Chrome devices under one management umbrella, letting you remotely configure and monitor them from a single console.
Moreover, with Mobile Device Manager Plus, you can implement all the security measures mentioned above in just a few clicks.
Source: https://cybersecuritynews.com/secure-your-organizations-mobile-endpoints/
