Corporate Data Security
Mobile devices are being exponentially added to the organization’s technology ecosystem. However, they bring along elevated corporate data security risks in several forms like device loss or theft, use of a mobile device to transmit corporate data over an unsecured network, installation of malware, or illegal access of sensitive data.
Every security loophole acts as an opportunity for the hackers and cybercriminals to penetrate into your systems, making your organization more vulnerable, in turn causing you irreparable business losses.
It is thus advisable to be proactive in implementing measures to ensure that your corporate devices and data remain protected and safe from these corporate data security incidents.
Following these ten tips can go a long way to secure your corporate devices and data from falling into the wrong hands.
1.Multi-Factor Authentication
Any device being used for work purposes, corporate or employee-owned, should have authentication mechanisms enabled. When you enable multi-factor authentication, it adds to layers of security to defend your corporate device and data. It should be a regular practice to enable password protection, screen lock code (or patterns), or biometric authentication like fingerprints (if your device supports).
2. Device wide Encryption
Device wide encryption is one of the most successful ways to ensure corporate mobile device security so that only an authorized user can decrypt this data with a key (or code). It is also advisable to jumble sensitive information like login and passwords, and payment and credit card information to make it difficult for them to be deciphered.
3. Anti-Virus and Firewalls
Anti-Virus and Firewall applications are imperative for corporate data security. Look for mobile or multi-device protection applications, which can cater to your diverse mobile requirements. While anti-virus software can protect mobile devices from viruses, spyware, and malware, firewalls can block ports, monitor traffic, and restrict incoming or outgoing packets based on your organization specifications.
4. Remote-Wipe Security Application
Businesses should consider investing in a commercial remote-wipe application for all mobile devices used by employees for business purposes. In case of a device loss, theft, or an employee exiting the organization, your IT administrator should have complete control over sensitive corporate data and should be able to remotely wipe corporate information to ensure corporate data security.
5. Containerization
To ensure corporate data security, allow corporate data to reside only in containerized apps and not the native apps. Containerization allows your IT team to segregate and secure corporate data from personal user information to maintain user privacy. Moreover, this containerized data can be encrypted or passcode may be applied to access it, making it completely inaccessible in case of device theft or loss.
6. Safe WiFi Usage Policy
Securing corporate data should be every organizations’ core objective. They should have a well-defined Wifi usage policy, which may include:
- Abstaining from connecting any mobile device to open and unsecured Wifi networks.
- Investing in a mobile hotspot.
- Disabling automatic Wifi connect features.
- Storing Wifi password only in encrypted form.
It is also important to communicate this policy to all employees to ensure maximum coverage.
7. Data-Access Policy
Companies should also devise clear and robust operational practices on how employees can access sensitive data. For instance, only designated administrators can access business-critical information. Also, separate work profiles with different access levels should be created in case a device is shared among different employees. All attempts to log in like SSH (Secure Shell) logins should be logged and reported. Communication and transaction over the networks should be secured using protocols like TLS (Transport Layer Security). HTTPS should be used to serve requests and special care must be taken in sanitizing user input to avoid XSS or Cross-site scripting issues.
8. Logging and Archiving Policy
Logs and archives should be maintained until a particular data set is valuable. This will not only reduce your infrastructure costs but will also protect your corporate data from attacks. For instance, password and other sensitive tokens should not be logged, IP anonymity in analytics tools should be used to protect user privacy, old records like location information, etc. should be archived and later purged after a certain threshold.
9. Regular Backups
Despite taking all measures for corporate mobile device security, there is still a probability that your corporate data becomes unavailable in case a mobile device gets destroyed or lost. Automate regular backups and encrypt them in a long term storage database, to make them readily accessible in case data becomes unavailable for any reason.
10. Invest in a Strong MDM Software
Corporate mobile device and data security are incomplete without a strong Mobile Device Management Software. Look for a solution that fits well with your organizational needs, i.e. the type of devices you support and can gel well with all aspects of your organizational policy and security standards.
Scalefusion bolsters your corporate mobile device security and corporate data security needs by helping you with streamlined policy enforcement, data security capabilities, granular control over device inventory, and effective BYOD management. We value our customer data and have a robust data storage policy in place. Our security best practices help you run your business smoothly on a reliable and secure infrastructure.
