Mobile Security Best Practices

By the DynaSis Team

In our last article, we touched a bit on mobile security as part of our larger discussion of mobile email adoption. We thought you might appreciate a follow-up discussion of the mobile device practices you should be putting in place to protect your company and personnel.

As corporate users continue to access business data and applications on their mobile devices, they blur the lines between company and personal use. Yet, numerous studies indicate that requiring employees to use a “company only” device lowers productivity and engenders user dissatisfaction.

Furthermore, at least one study found if workers are not allowed to use their personal devices for work, a large percentage will find workarounds to sneak corporate information onto personal devices in defiance of corporate policy. Those who engage in this practice generally aren’t corporate saboteurs―they’re simply frustrated employees that want to check email or perform other work tasks on their personal devices.

So, what’s a small or medium-sized business (SMB) to do? Engage in mobile device management (MDM), which lets organizations tightly manage mobile apps, secure mobile access to enterprise data, protect business data no matter where it is accessed or stored, and maintain auditable control over mobile devices.

Such robust MDM used to require a dedicated server that generally supported only one device platform (BlackBerry was the most common, in the past). Such solutions were beyond the capabilities (both in price and in complexity) of most firms.

Today, however, it’s possible to enjoy device-agnostic (any platform, within limits) MDM as a service. With such a solution, SMBs pay a fee for access to a platform that will ensure corporate protection. (Solutions such as these should provide all the support a company needs and completely alleviate the need to develop a solution in house or bear the burden of purchasing and configuring an MDM server.) The best of them combine desktop and device management under a single service, creating a “single pane of glass” view into all of a company’s user-run devices.

Many Managed IT service vendors provide such services, but all offerings are not created equal. Following are some key features to look for in a solution for your own firm:

• Track location of mobile devices based on location history or in real time;
• Trigger an alarm sound to help track a lost or stolen device;
• Lock, wipe and reset lost or stolen devices;
• Maintain a catalog of required apps and a list of banned apps, with remote app monitoring to ensure compliance.
• Configure email and settings―for any monitored device―remotely and automatically.
• Collect detailed inventory information as part of a complete network view.

At DynaSis, our offering combines desktop and device management, rolling MDM (smartphones and tablets) in with support and protection for corporate PCs (desktops and laptops). It incorporates all the best-practices protections we have discussed here, and more, and is included with many of our solutions. To learn more, fill out our inquiry form or give us a call at 678.218.1769.