How to ensure mobile devices are secure while remote working
With the outbreak of COVID19 remote working has quickly become the new norm in many countries.
Can you safely enable your employees to work remotely while ensuring your expensive Apple & Windows devices are secure?
Transition your workforce to SECURE remote working
With unprecedented events such as the coronavirus outbreak, it’s never been more important that businesses ensure their expensive assets and sensitive data are safely secured while employees work remotely.
As worldwide lockdowns take hold, businesses are having to rapidly transition their workforces to a new normal of remote working. For many organisations this means large numbers of valuable company assets such as laptops, tables and phones are being taken out of the workplace for the first time and in most cases completely unplanned. Remote working is not of course without major challenges: on the one hand without the right safeguards sensitive data can be accessed from unverified networks presenting a serious risk of a data breach, on the other now more than ever business owners going remote for the first time will be keen to ensure their workforces are where they should be and doing the work they should be.
Security Challenges
Implementing remote working comes with several serious security challenges for businesses. These range from protecting physical assets to avoiding serious data breaches. These risks can come from various sources including their own employees as this report outlines: “Quest research found 90% of organisations feel vulnerable to ‘insider’ attacks, with excessive access privileges (37%), access to sensitive data (36%) and the increasing complexity of IT (35%) being the key reason why.” How do you enable employees to use their mobile devices securely out of your premises?
Mobile devices require a large amount of an organization’s capital to run as a recent study from Oxford Economics found: “The total cost of mobile employee enablement for a 500-employee organization is $1,817 per employee over a standard two-year cellular connectivity agreement.” With such devices clearly being indispensable to business, these are thus unavoidable costs so ensuring the company’s fleet is being used by the right person, in the right place and on the right network is critical.
These challenge of can be assessed in 3 key ways…
Data breaches
Probably the most important area to protect, data breaches can cause major issues if confidential data gets leaked. Suffering a company data breach could lead to a loss of employee data or valuable intellectual property such as trademarks and copyrights. While sensitive client data might also be targeted by hackers. All in all potentially incredibly damaging for an organization’s image. With remote working, some employees may be working on unsecure WiFi networks and/or unapproved VPNs. This potentially creates a huge opportunity for hackers to access key company data if this isn’t handled correctly.
Loss or theft of devices
With a great deal of capital required to invest in supplying the workforce with mobile devices, it’s essential to mitigate any potential losses in this area. In large companies especially, it can be easy to lose track of the number of devices supplied to employees. A mobile device tracking solution is thus essential. This challenge is certainly heightened when remote working is implemented as all these devices will now be being used outside of the business premises.
Location tracking
Knowing where employees are located at any given moment is a critical requirement in this new world of remote working. The company needs to be assured their remote workforce and their company devices are where they say they are, to be confident that they’re doing committed work and not connecting to unsecured networks.
So with this all in mind how does a business secure its key assets?
Of the various options out there, HiddenApp offers the most advanced loss and theft recovery technology built for Apple and Windows 10 devices. With its seamless interface, it helps businesses and organisations keep track of what are, for many organizations, their most valuable hard assets and provides sophisticated tools to recover them and the critical data they contain should they fall into the wrong hands. With HiddenApp’s centralised platform, all company Apple and Windows 10 devices can be monitored, managed and tracked effortlessly. The platform also allows businesses to:
- Locate employees and devices
- Secure their device data in the event of loss
- Take control of external devices
By providing these features for senior employees to access when required, businesses can be confident that their assets and data are secure and are being used the right way. With large companies investing heavily in expensive mobile devices for their workforce, its critical for the bottom line to have reliable and leading mobile device tracking and theft recovery software in place.
In using the HiddenApp technology, businesses can ensure that employees remain productive, whilst also maintaining operational security.
What should you look for in a technology solution that also supports remote working?
A mobile device tracking solution with a focus on security is a vital purchase for any business to enable employees to work remotely. By having an all-in-one operation, business owners can remove some of the stresses of a remote working transition and focus on other key areas of the business.
So, what does an all-round remote working solution include?
- Device tracking (location, network data)
- Employee monitoring (iSight photos and keylog data – optional functionality)
- Data security (Remote wipe and fully customisable remote lockdown)
- Centralised management (Mass security actions, location history, multiuser accounts)
- Visibility & control (device status, audit log, search and filtering)
- Approved IP Address checker
So if you’re looking for a leading all round solution look no further than HiddenApp. Our platform makes monitoring, managing and keeping track of Apple and Windows 10 device fleets simple and remote working secure.
Secure laptops, tablets and phones with HiddenApp in just minutes, with zero-touch deployment for macOS and Windows 10 devices and ensure all devices are safe while employees work remotely.
