When was the last time you worried about whether your or your employees’ phone data was actually secure?
Have you ever thought about it at all?
The reality is your phone and those of your team may be more vulnerable than you might think.
Let’s take a simple example of an employee who uses her personal smartphone for work but also for personal use. She has the usual apps installed like Facebook and Instagram, and she uses it to check her work emails from time to time. She also exercises regularly so she has the Garmin Connect app on her phone to track her fitness activities and goals.
However, just last month, Garmin was forced to pay millions of dollars in ransom after a cyber-attack took many of its products and services offline.
The first reaction people have is that their personal data is now at risk, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Because this employee has used her phone to check work emails and more, there’s a good chance your company’s data and security is now at risk too – all because she had a fitness app on her personal phone.
Staying safe and staying mobile
The unfortunate reality is that most people think: “that won’t happen to me”; “It hasn’t happened yet”; or they don’t know where to start.
All of these reactions unfortunately lead to the same risky response: the organisation doesn’t make the necessary investment in smartphone security. Sometimes companies will instead undertake an expensive purchasing process and issue every employee with a work phone.
But that’s not really any safer than employees using their personal phones for work purposes because the risks remain. It’s just a whole lot more expensive.
What we urge businesses to do is to actually install mobile phone security software onto both their and their employees’ phones. It’s actually easier than you might think.
By doing this your phones will then be protected against:
- viruses that come into you or your employees’ email
- malicious apps when downloading from the app store
- unsafe WIFI hotspots that phones may connect to
And keeps saved passwords for websites safe by allowing you to remotely lock, wipe, locate and reset passwords
The key to making your smartphones more secure is to start taking their security seriously.
To find out more and find out how you can reduce your mobile security risk get in touch with i360 Cloud Services on 1800 38 25 80 or visit https://www.i360cloud.net.au/cybersecurity.