Whether it is simply to take calls on the go or to send and receive important information while away from the desk — and are part of the transition into the hyperconnected, technological future.
They are powerful and present significant challenges for any business. These challenges are incredibly common but need to be addressed — some may become high-level vulnerabilities if left unchecked.
In this article, we will explore the issues of mobile device management — and explain how your organisation can solve these challenges with ease.
Mobile devices are a risk for any company. Their inherent use takes them outside the workspace and with that outside of your organisation’s systems + infrastructure — potentially leading to a breach of important information.
This is why it is crucial to develop thorough security measures to ensure that mobile devices are safe:
Shadow IT is the use of an application or software that is unauthorised for use within your organisation that has been installed on a device. This can be a major security issue for any company as it ushers in the ability to install harmful software onto work devices.
An MDM solution will blacklist non-essential applications to ensure that no malicious software is installed onto devices that could be vulnerable to your organisation. Your organisation’s mobile devices should only have work-essential apps on them.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs allow employees to use their own devices at work. While this has productivity benefits, it also comes with a host of challenges of its own:
Utilising an MDM solution that can distinguish different rules between work-issued devices and BYOD devices is a fantastic way to mitigate threats.
Microsoft Intune allows you to implement the on-premise functionalities of your security network to your BYOD program, meaning that you can implement security features throughout your company’s BYOD setup without having to worry about over-restricting your employees’ use of their devices.
Software can — and often will — have vulnerabilities that need to be patched by the developers. This is a vulnerability that is not exactly in your control, but it is vital that you ensure to install patches and fixes as soon as they become available.
It can be easy to delay or forget to install patches throughout your organisation, but this is crucial to patch-up any vulnerabilities and exploits within the software that you are using.
Using MDM software to manage and deploy patches throughout your organisation means that you can easily stop powerful vulnerabilities from being exploited. You risk putting your organisation at risk if you do not keep on top of this.
Mobile devices are incredibly vulnerable to being misplaced or stolen, which has a few consequences for your organisation:
Internal data breaches are becoming more and more common with the implementation of mobile devices into business infrastructure. Network access control will mitigate this and minimise the risk of an internal breach.
The most used control technique is the principle of least privilege (PoLP). This ensures people only have access to the data that they need to be able to work, restricting unrequired access throughout your organisation, and making data available only to those who need it.
Privileged access management (PAM) will also help ensure that you can outline the restrictions and authorisations for each unique device on your network. This means that only the devices that are authorised to access said data can access it, instantaneously blocking other connections.
Mobile devices can create some of the worst vulnerabilities and challenges for modern businesses. Ensuring that your organisation is prepared and equipped to deal with these challenges will save significant amounts of time and mitigate stress and strain on your business’s resources and IT infrastructure in the long term.
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