You know computer and network security is essential. There are many threats that could impact your business, but mobile security is often overlooked by SMBs. Whether retrieving emails or accessing sensitive data stored in the cloud, using unsecured mobile devices can have catastrophic consequences.
Before mobile devices became prevalent, you could use locked rooms or secured vaults to protect important data. With the advent of the internet, this became a little more challenging, requiring firewalls and other intrusion prevention methods to keep data safe.
Today, however, it is not as easy to protect data. It’s difficult to even know where your information is and who is accessing it; much less secure it. For example, an employee may be viewing their email from a vulnerable public network like an airport or coffee shop or from a compromised, virus-laden cell phone.
3 Steps to Boost Your Mobile Security
1. Be aware of mobile security risks. With employees having multiple portable devices housing sensitive company data like email, company contacts, cloud applications and files, the simple incident of an employee losing their unsecured cell phone can result in serious security threats to your company. Here are a few examples:
- Competitors accessing client lists
- Banking information accessed through cloud-based accounting applications
- Client identification shared on the black market
- Malware getting into your company networks
- Disgruntled employee sharing company data with competitors
2. Use an easily deployable mobile security solution. These secure your data with minimal disruption to normal operations and are affordable solutions for smaller businesses. Applied Tech’s Mobile Security Management can help protect company data from unwanted loss by implementing options like Bit-Locker, multifactor authentication, mobile access management and digital rights management – all while making it easy to implement.
3. Avoid extreme lockdown measures. You need your employees to be mobile and use their devices. Getting extreme with security measures will interfere with efficiency and productivity. More importantly, employees may resist dramatic security changes, possibly nullifying the entire system through lack of engagement.
Not using mobile security measures for your business is like not locking the filing cabinet for your accounting files 20 years ago or not having a lock on the door of your business with big computer equipment visible from the outside. It’s inviting all sorts of trouble. Just as you wouldn’t skip locking your door or having a firewall on your network or antivirus on your laptops, your business can’t afford to ignore the need for mobile security.
To learn more about how Applied Tech can help increase your company’s mobile security, sign up below or give us a call at (855)729-1300
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