One in five consumers, according to a survey of 1,000 by the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, indicated that they would be using the latest iPad for business. This statistic is hardly surprising. Apple technology in particular is responsive and adaptable, making it preferable for a company looking to integrate technology into their everyday practices.
Bring your own device, or BYOD, is an innovative program that you can use to the advantage of your business whether you have five employees, or five-thousand. However, for a large enterprise, much more is at stake when you consider that the confidential company information that your employees are walking around with is scattered over thousands of devices.
For any company, one of the biggest BYOD challenges comes down to security. With all of those iPhones in use, how will you manage all of those security issues? If you are already implementing BYOD, or plan to, there are several very important things to know about iPhone security.
- Protecting information starts with the user.
- Mobile device management must be fully supervised.
- Safe use must be enforced.
Ultimately, iphone management on the user end will have to account for every confidential piece of security that is stored on the phone including account numbers, passwords, corporate emails, pictures, videos, browser history, financial information, recently visited locations, and more. While the pass-code lock should be enabled, and an auto lock timeout should be engaged, it is important that employees create difficult to guess codes. Birthdays, and codes such as 1234, 0000, or 1212 are easily guessed. You must also make sure that a user disables any features that could be used without a need to enter the pass-code, such as voice dial.
Unfortunately, you cannot just leave it up to the user to be wholly responsible. What happens if a device is stolen? In San Francisco, cell phone robberies rose 36% over the year prior, and in New York, 14% of all crimes involve stolen iPads and iPhones. To keep devices safe from intangible threats, you will need to be able to push firmware updates. To protect from human threats, you need to enable and use a remote wipe of all data when necessary. Mobile device management can help you ensure security by remotely encrypting devices, disabling the iCloud, enforcing pass-codes, and even disabling elements such as the Bluetooth, wifi, or camera.
You can start by enforcing a strong BYOD policy that includes a ban on jail-breaking, and an agreement that users will disable auto fill, enable privacy and security settings, and also work with your organization IT department to identify and eliminate any security threats. Mobile device management will be a valuable asset in accomplishing that goal.
Using a strong device management system is essential, and is supported by employee agreement on policies, and enforcement of those policies. There are approximately 1 billion smartphones around the globe, and ABI Research has indicated that over the next five years, 1 billion more will enter the market. If you have not needed mobile device management already, the explosive growth of smartphones and BYOD could mean that you will need to soon. Visit here for more information: www.maas360.com