Introduction
Safeguarding digital data from unwanted access, corruption, loss or theft is important for businesses. Strong data security policies and procedures, when implemented effectively, safeguard an organization’s information assets not just from cybercriminals, but also from insider threats and human mistakes, which is still one of the major causes of data breaches today.
A powerful mobile device management system with a kiosk lockdown feature can save your organization from unwanted and unforeseen troubles by restricting unwanted apps and websites; and monitoring devices almost 24 by 7.
In this article, let us discover how a mobile device management solution with kiosk lockdown feature can level up your corporate data security efforts in 2022.
Facts and Figures
Do you know Captain Zap? The Morris Worm? MafiaBoy?
If your answer is no, let’s explore.
- Captain Zap: In 1981, Ian Murphy, also known as Captain Zap, broke into AT&T computers and played with the internal clocks that metered billing prices. Due to this, customers were getting late-night discount rates even if they called mid-day.
- The Morris worm: In 1988, Robert Morris released a worm that crippled more than 6000 computers. This cyberattack forced the foundation of CERT, a government-based anti-cyber-terrorism team in the United States, to deal with similar future worms.
- MafiaBoy: It’s quite interesting. In Feb 2000, a Canadian boy launched a DDoS attack that crippled Amazon, eBay and Yahoo. He was not a genius per se, he simply ran a script!
As a business, it is very important to excavate the history of cybercrimes. It is crucial to find out how those attacks happened, what was the hacker mindset behind and what were the consequences?
Let us walk you through something that will interest you even more.
The Most Recent Data Breaches
- January 2022: Hackers looted over $30 Million in the Crypto.com breach. They were able to bypass the 2-factor authentication method.
- February 2022: A fundraising website, GiveSendGo, was hacked, exposing the personal information of 90,000 donors.
- March 2022: The Lapsus$ hacker group gained access to Microsoft’s Bing, Cortana, and other programmes. In the same month, Okta, a zero-trust authentication provider, was hacked by Lapsus$.
- April 2022: A company named Block confirmed a former employee was involved in a breach associated with its Cash App. The company had to reach out to over 8 million consumers to inform them about the breach. The leak compromised customers’ data, brokerage account numbers and stock trading activity.
- May 2022: Cybercrimes are still in a work in progress mode!!!
All of the above data[*] makes it clear that cybercrimes are real and stand as a serious threat to corporate data security today. The need of the hour is to build a strong business infrastructure that should have the potential to survive and thrive against all the odds.
Taking this statement as the foundation brick of this article, let’s understand the challenges ahead of corporate data security in 2022.
Challenges Ahead of Corporate Data Security
1. Professionalized cybercrimes
Cybercriminals have adapted to the changing digital landscape by implementing newer techniques such as trained social engineering attacks, more polished phishing and malicious links that look approximately 100 percent real and alike. These kinds of professionalized cyber crimes have become so frequent today that even the most technologically equipped businesses fall prey.
Hackers and cybercriminals are focusing on reverse engineering concepts. They are tirelessly learning the latest AI technologies through which they are becoming capable of mimicking trusted applications and websites.
Metaverse has opened up a huge hacking arena for hackers and cybercriminals. Virtual reality headsets or smartwatches are vital to the metaverse. If left unencrypted, these devices are vulnerable to hackers. The information gathered by such headsets, or any of the other wearable devices, can be extremely sensitive as it poses risk to corporate data security.
2. Hybrid work culture and BYOD
The hybrid work culture adopted by almost all businesses today has the capacity to invite a massive cyber pandemic in the coming years. Hackers are constantly launching cyberattacks against businesses and other organizations. The threat of negligent or reckless employees, on the other hand, is a much bigger cause of hacks and breaches.
Today, many employees tend to connect organizational networks from home or public wi-fi, in case they are traveling or in cafes, hotels, etc. However, their mobile devices through which they connect to work are not entirely secure.
These devices and networks are always under the radar of hackers. Hackers find it as an open opportunity to get into secure organizational networks. Other than this, many employees fall prey to phishing and malicious links. This proves hazardous to many businesses.
BYOD devices allow employees to work with familiar devices, but BYOD comes with its own set of challenges. Employees accessing offices through unsafe public wi-fi or unknown networks is a big threat to data security. Employees, after all, are the ones who click on websites, create passwords, set up IT systems and write software code.
In absence of adequate ISMS training, employees are more likely to make hazardous mistakes. Threat actors are taking advantage of the hybrid work culture and barge into corporate networks and databases.
3. Cloud security issues
Almost all companies have adopted cloud computing today. The main challenges ahead of cloud security are data loss or leakage, breach of confidentiality, unintentional exposure of credentials, weaker incident response strategy, compliance, etc.
Cloud settings are particularly vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks because they require Internet connectivity to access them.
4. Ransomware attacks
Ransomware stands as a costly concern for all enterprises today. According to the 2022 Cyber Threat Report, governments across the world saw a 1,885% surge in ransomware attacks. Also, the healthcare industry witnessed a 755% increase in ransom attacks in 2021.
Such attacks are profitable and even hackers wish to grow, right? On a serious note, ransomware will remain a major cyber threat to businesses in the coming years.
5. Risks associated with mobile devices
Global enterprise mobility is on the rise. The remote work culture is gaining traction faster than ever before due to its simplicity of use and increased employee productivity. The risks associated with mobile devices will continue to grow in 2022.
Today the workforce is mobile, operates through mobile devices and wishes to remain mobile due to the flexibility and work-life balance associated. These unmanaged mobile devices can be hazardous to business security and operations.
Industry-Specific Challenges
Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)
The banking and finance sector has always been the topmost target for cybercriminals. Hackers often try ransomware attacks or DDoS attacks to grab hefty amounts from the banking sector.
Banks often operate through kiosks for information and money generation such as ATMs, Account Opening kiosks, etc. Regardless of how secure their infrastructure is, banks and financial institutions must reconsider their security and mobile device and endpoint management strategies.
Last Mile-Delivery/Logistics
The logistics industry requires its employees to be on-road most of the time.
Some of the challenges that the last mile-delivery & logistics industries are likely to face in 2022 include timely delivery, securing financial data of customers, tracking the location of devices, preventing misuse of devices, encrypting corporate data on devices and securing devices and endpoints from theft.
Healthcare
The healthcare industry suffered massive challenges in the recent past. Even now there is a possibility that similar events will arise again in the future. The healthcare industry other than operating offline also operates from mobile devices such as outpatient video calls and consultations, etc.
This telehealth industry stands vulnerable with zillions of patient data on various mobile devices and applications. If this data is not encrypted and falls into wrong hands, this can result in a HIPAA violation. Therefore, the need of the hour is to secure this sensitive data to maintain the brand reputation and to serve better.
Education
The education industry will continue to need effective and flawless tools and technologies to empower students and educators. Nowadays, students of all age groups access education with the help of mobile devices and smartphones. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that they have access to age-appropriate and relevant content. It’s critical to keep track of whether or not educational devices are being utilized for recreational or inappropriate purposes.
Secure Your Business with Scalefusion MDM’s Kiosk Lockdown Feature
All the risks associated with corporate data security are related to devices that are mobile, vulnerable to cyber incidents, unmanaged and unmonitored. Corporate data security is essential for your business because it directly impacts your business growth, revenue and reputation.
Many ambitious companies benefit from the Scalefusion mobile device management solution to secure and manage their devices endpoints including smartphones, tablets, laptops, rugged devices, POS and digital signages. Scalfusion MDM’s kiosk lockdown feature offers top-notch security and 360-degree monitoring of your mobile devices.
Let us discover how Scalefusion MDM can help you level up your corporate data security efforts for the future years to come.
1. Kiosk lockdown
kiosk software enables IT admins to lock any mobile device, irrespective of the OS platform to lock as a single or multi-app kiosk. It prevents unauthorized access and limits unnecessary data costs.
With the kiosk lockdown feature, any mobile device can be converted to function as a purpose-built kiosk. It can be single-app or multi-app based on business requirements. The kiosk lockdown feature hides non-work apps and every other functionality.
Employees are not permitted to access other applications or settings on the device, even if they desire to. This offers an extra layer of security to the device and sensitive corporate data.
2. Corporate data security
Scalefusion helps in creating a secure corporate environment by keeping track of mobile devices, preventing unauthorized access and keeping distracting apps and web browsers at bay. Organizations can lock their devices to be used for business-specific purposes.
With Scalefusion, you can secure your corporate data by remotely configuring VPN. Remote VPN configuration provides secure access to company data and networks. A VPN provides remote employees with the same security and connectivity benefits as if they are in the office.
3. Location tracking
Scalefusion allows GPS-based location tracking using OpenStreetMaps. There is an option to integrate Google Maps with Scalefusion. With Scalefusion, you can create and apply geofences to set virtual boundaries for your entire device fleet and fetch the entire route history with accuracy.
4. Prevent device misuse or theft
Not just virtual, but mobile devices are vulnerable to physical threats as well. A good MDM like Scalefusion ensures that even if the devices are stolen or lost, corporate data still stays safe by means of encryption.
Even if the devices are lost or stolen, the data stays encrypted and safe. Scalefusion allows setting location-based security alerts. IT admins can set alerts as and when a device enters or exits a geofence.
With MDM, organizations can enforce stricter security passwords, ensure data encryption, can mark devices as lost or stolen and can safely wipe off all the data remotely. You can also disable unauthorized factory reset to prevent device misuse. You can also block taking screenshots or copying sensitive corporate data from work devices to personal devices.
5. Reports and device analytics
For security, staying updated and well-informed about mobile devices is important. Scalefusion’s Deep Dive Analytics helps IT admins get a 360-degree overview of the entire device inventory. IT admins can get data usage details, compliance violation alerts and other significant information with DeepDive.
Conclusion
Mobile device management should be an important aspect of your company’s cybersecurity strategy in 2022. Scalefusion MDM with kiosk lockdown feature can help to manage, monitor and secure your mobile devices and endpoints with ease.
Scalefusion is compatible with diverse OS platforms. It is an Android MDM that simplifies android device management, an Apple MDM that magnifies the security of supervised Apple devices and an MDM for Windows to make your cumbersome IT tasks easier.
So go ahead and level up your corporate data security efforts with Scalefusion MDM, now!
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