February 4, 2016 – It’s not a surprise that mobile device management enables companies to reduce costs by managing all corporate and BYOD mobile devices under one central administrative console. And allowing staff to use their personal devices – as opposed to a company provided device – can provide another significant cost savings.
What most IT managers might not know is that EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management) also carries other indirect cost savings, including securing your corporate network across all the different devices your employees now use.
The purpose of EMM is to increase the functionality of all mobile devices within your company while also protecting your organization from possible security attacks or data leaks.
Here are the 3 top ways your employees are unknowingly putting your company at risk by accessing corporate data on their personal mobile devices.
Risk number 1: BYOD
An average person has a minimum of 3 devices connected to the company network – often without IT’s knowledge. With companies now allowing employees to use their own mobile devices, you can lose the ability to monitor and control what and how data is being shared across devices.
Many companies allow their staff to receive work-related emails on their personal devices. The issue here is not only that emails are on a personal device, but that they are unprotected and could be lost or hacked. Today, a large amount of confidential company information is sent or received via email. This includes things like restricted employee or customer personal information (that are protected under HIPPAA, FINRA or other compliance regulations).
These are major issues if the network used to share your corporate information is not secured. It leaves room for third party infiltration. EMM allows you to set up virtual private networks (VPN) and remote desktop services, which helps protect your corporate data across multiple devices and outside the office.
Risk number 2: Data Leakage
Many employees won’t bother checking with your IT team before downloading an app for work or using a cloud solution like DropBox to get their job done. Today, employees use many different cloud solutions, whether approved by IT or not.
When employees utilize the cloud on their own terms, it leaves your company with no data control, as files can be shared from any unsecured device or network outside your office. If there is no cloud encryption, this leaves room for a possible data leakage. EMM lets you securely manage data on all mobile devices.
Risk number 3: Uninformed employees
Employees usually don’t intend to put their organizations at risk. Often, they’re just trying to “do their job efficiently.” With the “consumerization of IT,” cloud options are readily available to your employees, and widely used in the personal sphere, so employees feel comfortable taking these options into their own hands.
When your company doesn’t have a BYOD policy well-defined and implemented, you are more susceptible to data leaks and potential regulatory fines and penalties. And don’t think you won’t be affected. All businesses are at risk of potential fines and subject to regulations (e.g. healthcare, law firms). Every company has confidential data, whether it’s employee data, medical data, credit card information or even merger and acquisition information.
When you establish IT standards and train your employees on how to securely share data across devices, you reduce your risk. MDM can additionally help minimize compliance infractions with comprehensive security, control, and audit features.
Now that you know how your employees are unconsciously putting your company at risk, consider how your IT team can protect and optimize the everyday functionality of your business.
Mobile Device Management enables your IT staff to be more productive anywhere with any device, while securing company data, monitoring employees’ activities across multiple devices and managing these personal devices. If you’re not sure how to begin, there are consulting companies like Coretek that provide appropriate solutions to your company’s needs and will assist you throughout the process. For more information, please visit Coretek Services’ page.