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Are Your Employees Mobile Phones A Cyber Threat To Your Business?
With mobile phones being an intertwined part of our working lives and your employees using them to check emails, downloading attachments and accessing work files remotely, this can be a big threat to your companies and clients data without the proper security checks in place. Everyone uses mobile phones on a daily basis and this is an opportunity for the cyber criminals who will and can take advantage of this. Mobile phones are much more powerful than ever before and carry tons of information on them about the user, including financial, social media and password information not to mention location data and this can be an absolute gold mine for a cyber criminal.
The most common types of security threats and how best to protect your phone;
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Poor passwords or no Multi factor authentication:
If an employees mobile phone where to be lost or stolen, are you confident if it got into the wrong hands that is would be useless? If a phone can be unlocked by simply swiping or pressing a button, in the wrong hands this could be catastrophic for your business. Ensure that passcodes, fingerprint authentication or even facial technology is implemented on your employees mobile phones if they are using it for company use. If poor password habits are used and if personal and company information can be accessible on the same device this can be an opportunity for a cyber criminal. If an employee where to lose their phone, what steps are in place. Most devices now are equipped with remote access to delete information, MDM -Mobile device management tools can help to secure, encrypt or wipe company information from a device if lost or stolen as long as this was activated prior to going missing.
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Public Wi-Fi use:
There is no way of knowing if public Wi-Fi spots (coffee shops, shopping malls or even down the high street) is secure and they can be less secure than private ones. There is no way of knowing who set it up and who is monitoring or who has access to it. A public Wi-Fi network also means that someone else on the same network could infiltrate your device and intercept any data that you have access to. The bottom line is Public Wi-Fi is dangerous to your businesses and clients data, the use of this should be discouraged to your employees.
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Keeping phones up to date:
Mobile devices operating systems and apps should be kept up to date, these updates provide fixes and patches for known vulnerabilities, phones should be updated immediately rather than “remind me later”
Jailbreak or root should be discouraged, this is when on an iPhone it is known as “Jailbreaking” and Android phones it is referred as “Rooting”, this is when the operating system on the phone is modified or the apps customised and then the phone is not in its default state which could be a potential vulnerability security risk with malware and could put your businesses data at risk.
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Staff training
Your employees are still your number one weak link in the chain of your cyber security and without the correct training in place you are leaving your businesses security full of holes. Training on how to deal with a potential security risk or clicking on a link within an email, Phishing emails - staff awareness is paramount in the defences on your businesses cyber security. Put some policies and procedures in place, constantly keep everyone aware of the dangers, discuss this in meetings and encourage everyone to be on their toes, this does not only include mobile devices, but tablets, PC’s and laptops.
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What to do next
Here at Control IT Solutions, we have a proven track record helping and assisting hundreds of clients with our secure and reliable Managed Services and Cyber security. If you would like an informal chat to find out more and how we can be of benefit your businesses IT infrastructure, please call us on Perth 01738 310271 or Glasgow 0141 428 4301 or click here to make contact via email.
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