By: Brian DeVault
Many employees are restricted to working remotely, and much of this requires using a telephone or cellular device to contact customers. In this week’s episode we put together a strategic plan to become accustomed to the telecommuting strategy.
Enroll
Mobile device management (MDM) software is used by businesses to optimize the functionality and security of their fleet of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. The intent of MDM is to optimize the functionality and security of mobile devices within the enterprise, while simultaneously protecting the corporate network. By applying custom policies to smartphones and tablets through MDM software, an administrator can regulate both corporate-owned and personally owned devices to the organization’s policies.
IT departments use MDM software to monitor, manage, and secure employees’ mobile devices that are deployed across multiple mobile service providers and operating systems, as well as enforce policies and maintain the desired level of IT control. MDM software can limit the risk of lost data, stop unapproved software installs, and prevent unauthorized access to the mobile devices accessing corporate data and networks. To qualify for inclusion in the Mobile Device Management category, a product must be compatible with all common or company-issued mobile devices, and support necessary operating systems and platforms.
Enforce
Keep your software up to date with effective patch management. When software updates are not enforced, you’re risking the stability of your IT environment. Experienced hackers are well-versed in system vulnerabilities, and unpatched software makes it easy for them to infiltrate your network.
Scammers often update their tactics, but there are some signs that will help you recognize a phishing email or text message. Phishing emails and text messages may look like they’re from a company you know or trust. They may look like they’re from a bank, a credit card company, a social networking site, an online payment website or app, or an online store. Phishing emails and text messages often tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. They may:
Restrict
One of the most significant benefits of MDM is the possibility to configure devices remotely. With different configuration and restriction possibilities, organizations can easily ensure data security and compliance, and provide employees with the tools they need. MDM makes it possible to install all necessary settings to devices and set restrictions for device usage.
Your company should restrict the software that can be installed on your mobile devices. Make sure it’s only apps that are signed by the App Store. Another thing is to make sure people are not downloading suspicious apps or apps that have malicious intent like things like WiFi scanners, hacking tools and those types of things. A lot of times they’ll have embedded software and that’s beaconing or doing something that you don’t want it to be doing.
Authenticate
Authenticate your applications against your mobile device. A great idea is to require multi factor authentication from mobile platforms as well as from your desktop platform or your SAS environment. This will ensure that if somebody picks up a device or it’s lost or stolen, that you have the ability to prevent them from gaining access to it, even if they get the code right for the welcome screen.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to authentication. When reviewing the authentication architecture of an app, you should first consider whether the authentication methods used are appropriate in the given context. Authentication can be based on one or more of the following:
- Something the user knows (password, PIN, pattern, etc.)
- Something the user has (SIM card, one-time password generator, or hardware token)
- A biometric property of the user (fingerprint, retina, voice
- The number of authentication procedures implemented by mobile apps depends on the sensitivity of the functions or accessed resources. Refer to industry best practices when reviewing authentication functions. Username/password authentication combined with a reasonable password policy is generally considered sufficient for apps that have a user login and aren’t very sensitive. This form of authentication is used by most social media apps.
This blog post is part of NETRIO’s weekly Whiteboard Wednesday series. Follow along on Linkedin and YouTube each week as Brian and Mike discuss use cases, new technology, and trends.
