Mobile Device Management (MDM) is a great method to ensure that your employees remain productive and do not violate any corporate policies. In the ever-expanding Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) world, more organizations are allowing employees the freedom to work from their own mobile devices. Tablets, smart phones, and personal laptops are taking a larger and larger space on corporate networks.
While there are numerous advantages to a BYOD environment, allowing personal devices onto a corporate network introduces a variety of security threats. A Mobile Device Management solution helps in securing that environment.
Here are 5 Tips you should implement when securing your devices with a MDM approach:
- Require standards for password strength – Make sure that your MDM is configured to require device passcodes that meet or exceed guidelines concerning length, complexity, retry and timeout settings for the appropriate device.
- Device Update Compliance – Set a minimum required version for employee mobile devices. This will require that employee devices are kept updated and restrict devices that do not comply with this setting.
- Prevent Jail-breaking – Prevent jail-broken or ‘rooted’ mobile devices. Allowing these devices could add an additional attack vector as many ‘rooted’ or jail-broken devices install third-party app stores that may contain malicious apps. Preventing these devices helps secure access to company data.
- Require usage of signed apps and certificates – Use your MDM to screen any mobile devices for suspicious applications before allowing access to company resources. These could be email programs, mobile apps, and networks (Wi-Fi or company VPN access). As with jail-broken devices, unsigned apps and certificates may allow malware to infect the device.
- Seek Employee Buy–In – Prior to allowing a user device onto your network, require the user acknowledge and accept basic corporate policies. Make sure that the user understands that company administrators will be able to revoke and/or restrict access to devices that don’t comply with company policy.
The best idea is to decide your corporate strategy and then choose a MDM solution that fits your project. For more information on mobile device security, download our iPhone and Android Security Guides. If you would like to begin a conversation about Mobile Device Management, please CONTACT US.
