Mobile devices are infiltrating the businesses and enterprises at an astounding rate. From smartphones to tablets, the corporate world is being inundated with products that are designed to keep employees working while they are away from the office.
Most companies believe the effort works. The sheer number of smartphones in the hands of executives, and tablets entering many industries indicate that without mobile products, many companies believe that they wouldn't be able to compete as effectively in the marketplace.
The businesses benefits of mobile devices are also significant including access to email, calendars and business documents, as well as the ability to give a flexible working arrangements. It is therefore unsurprising that more than 70 percent of people in developed countries admit to using their mobile phones for both work and play.
This influx of consumer devices into the workplace presents significant challenges for IT teams, spurring a computing catchphrase 'Bring Your Own Device' or 'BYOD'. IT staff are left struggling to secure the business information that is accessed via or stored on personal devices.
Mobile devices hold and access sensitive information including customer details, bank accounts, credit card numbers and trade secrets. However, these devices are easily lost and are attractive to thieves, enabling business data to fall into the wrong hands. Additionally, mobile devices are susceptible to cyber-attacks targeting the device.
A survey revealed that 55 percent of businesses found tackling mobility somewhat to extremely challenging and 43 percent identified mobile devices as one of their top three IT risks. Concerns are wide-ranging, including lost and stolen devices, data leakage, unauthorized access to corporate resources and the spread of malware infections from mobile devices to the company network. With mobile devices being used to access business data, the cost of security incidents can also be significant.
Despite these challenges, companies and organizations are at a tipping point in mobility adoption as the uptake of mobile devices continues. Organizations need to find a way to embrace mobility, without compromising on security. However, this can be challenging given that many of the mobile devices used in the workplace are not owned by the business. There are questions around whether IT policies should enable organizations to wipe employee devices or apply mobile management solutions to personal as well as corporate data and applications.
The following will help organizations enable mobility while managing their risk profile and securing mobile devices:
Enable broadly: Mobility offers tremendous opportunities for organizations of all sizes. Companies should understand how employees can take advantage of mobility and develop a phased approach to build an ecosystem that supports the company's plan.
Think strategically: Companies should build a realistic assessment of the ultimate scale of their mobile business plan and its impact on their infrastructure. Companies should explore all of the mobile opportunities that can be introduced and understand the risks and threats that need to be mitigated.
Manage efficiently: Mobile devices require the same attention given to traditional PCs. Many of the processes, policies, education and technologies that are leveraged for desktops and laptops are also applicable to mobile platforms. A solution should be available to manage all necessary device settings across a all range of platforms.
Enforce Appropriately: As more employees connect their personal devices to the corporate network, organizations need to modify their acceptable usage policies to accommodate both corporate-owned and personally-owned devices. Management and security levers will need to differ based on ownership of the device and the associated controls that the organization requires.
Secure comprehensively: Companies should look beyond basic password, wipe and application blocking policies by focus on the information and where it is viewed, transmitted and stored. Integrating with existing data loss prevention, encryption and authentication policies will ensure consistent corporate and regulatory compliance.
Employees will use mobile devices for business one way or another, so organizations and businesses need to enable mobility on their own terms. With the right security solutions and policies in place there is no reason that organizations cannot enjoy the productivity benefits that can be gained by mobile devices while ensuring that business data is not at risk.