If there’s a time of the year we’re allowed to be absent-minded, it’s December. There’s so much going on, everyone’s busy and bustling everywhere. This year we’re also contending once more with the pandemic, with the discovery of the new variant Omicron. What has this got to do with mobile security? Well, when your mind is elsewhere it’s so easy to misplace your phone, leave it on the train, or not hear it fall out of your pocket when walking through a crowd.
If you were to lose your phone, how confident are you that the business data on it is safe? And, to expand on that, how confident are you that if a member of your team were to do the same thing, that your business data would be safe on their phone?
You don’t have to cross your fingers and close your eyes in the hope that a kind stranger will hand it into the lost property or try and get it back to you. There are some steps you can take to take charge, and make sure you’re protected in the event of device loss or/ and theft. And remember, mobile security is for life – not just for Christmas.
Password protection
The first and easiest thing you can do is make sure that your mobile device is password protected. All devices are different, but this will be easily doable from the handset settings. This just puts an initial barrier up between someone who is just out to steal a phone to make a quick quid, and your business emails with sensitive data contained in them.
Ability to wipe data remotely
This is more technical, and you’ll need to talk to your IT provider about this, but you are able to take control of your business data on mobile devices. This is not only useful if a phone gets lost or stolen, but also if someone leaves the company on bad terms – you can wipe the business data from their phone immediately, even before they bring the device back.
Mobile phone encryption
The idea of encryption is to stop data from ending up in the hands of unauthorised third parties. On mobile devices, information is automatically made unreadable if the device user doesn’t have the key. It’s another barrier to stop opportunists from gaining access to what they shouldn’t.
Can you protect business data on personal devices?
Yes! Mobile security doesn’t have to stop at business-owned devices. When employees use their own devices for work, this is called ‘Bring Your Own Device’ or BYOD. If you’re going to be doing this, you need to make sure you have a robust policy in place so that everyone knows where they stand. It is also possible to segment the data, so that you ultimately have control over the business data on their device, and you can withdraw their access to it at any time. This is useful if a personal phone gets lost or stolen, but it’s also useful if someone does something like selling their phone without getting it wiped properly.
Do you want to implement a robust mobile security policy, to keep your business data safe? Get in touch.