There’s now more web traffic on mobile devices than desktops – and according to Ofcom, data usage increased by 37% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same quarter in 2019.
As these numbers grow, so do the opportunities for people to engage in malicious activities such as app-based scams and data theft.
While all mobile users should be aware of cyber threats and take steps to protect themselves, businesses have specific challenges in keeping their employees and their company infrastructure safe from harm.
Time for some questions
In addressing these challenges, it’s important to assess the risks to your business and your ability to deal with them. You’ll need to ask yourself a series of questions, such as:
- Are you able to manage the traffic going through your company devices?
- What happens if the phone is lost/stolen, including in relation to GDPR?
- Are you able to monitor device, app and network threats in real time and act when devices are compromised?
- Are there ways for employees to use their mobile devices to circumvent business IT policies?
- Do employees use cloud-based file sharing apps such as Dropbox to store and manage company data?
- Have or will your employees be using their personal mobile devices for work purposes?
By answering these questions, you should identify where your business is exposed to risk and find the right way to fix these issues.
Keeping track of company data
Fortunately, there are comprehensive mobile security services that can help.
It’s vital that your business can monitor the use of company data, information and software, wherever your employees happen to be working. It’s possible to do this by looking at device usage in real time – scanning for issues, detecting attacks as they occur and analysing and fixing malware.
We’d recommend that this happens as part of a fully managed service, where policies for threat defence and data management can be centrally overseen.
The benefits of UEM
Another way to protect your business is Unified Endpoint Management (UEM). This service can cover all your mobile assets, including smartphones, tablets and laptops.
An effective UEM will enable you to apply policies for users at a more granular level while managing access to your infrastructure, blocking access if necessary and wiping sensitive data from a device.
A UEM can also help to protect your business if an employee is using their personal device for work, potentially as part of a Bring Your Own Device policy that involves them accessing company data on it. As personal and company data will be on the same device, you’ll need a way to remove the latter without impacting the former, such as if an employee leaves your business.
A form of security known as a ‘sandbox’ can be used in these circumstances. It’s effectively a portal into the working environment that can be tracked and removed securely from the device as and when required – an effective way to keep home lives and work lives separate while ensuring your business stays protected.
Is your company’s data secure?
For more information, check out this handy infographic.
Contact us.
If you’d like advice on how to protect your mobile suite, or if you wish to discuss which solution would be best for your business, please get in touch so that we can talk about your options.