A Plan for Creating the Use of Secure Mobile Devices by Employees

Posted: August 26th, 2021

A Plan for Creating the Use of Secure Mobile Devices by Employees

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A Plan for Creating the Use of Secure Mobile Devices by Employees

With the ever-growing numbers of employees bringing along their mobile devices to workplaces, a lot of companies have recorded high cases of cyber insecurity. The influx of use of such devices is associated with the complexity of variousdaily business operations. As much as the use of iPhones, iPads, and Android devices has impacted the level of productivity positively, it has, however, posed significant risks to the life of organization. The paper seeks to create a plan that addresses the use of mobile devices by internal and external employees. The aim is to ensure that they regularly access the new cloud-based CRM software application.

First, employees’ mobile devices would need to have antimalware software before installing the company’s CRM software application (ISACA, 2013). Such a company policy would ensure that that Internet-based malware is filtered, thus preventing the crashing of operating systems against the risks of new malware threats. Second, the plan would involve the securing of mobile communications happening across the company through encryption. Such a measure would ensure the management reduces the risk of having wireless communications intercepted and snooped easily (ISACA, 2013). The encryption such as VPN would provide secure access to the cloud-based system, thus facilitating safe logging, effective management, and secure authentication of all the employees. Moreover, the plan should recommend the use of strong authentication associated with controlling the passwords. According to ISACA (2013), implementing built-in biometrics like fingerprint scanners, voiceprint, and facial recognition security tools would regulate the unauthorized access of the company’s crucial information from the cloud-based CRM application.

Third, the plan should include an organization’s policy of controlling third-party software on employees’ mobile devices, either limiting or blocking the possibly compromised security breaches. As an example, the execution of BYOD management applications would require the employees to login to a remote virtual work environment, where all information going through the devices is the resultant screen output from the cloud-based CRM system (Dillon, Stahl, & Vossen, 2015). Therefore, the data flow is cut out immediately upon the completion of remote sessions. Fourth, there would be a plan of creating separately secured mobile gateways coupled with hierarchical entry levels. The management of cloud-based CRM applications needs to automatically direct mobile traffics via unique gateways and entry levels that suit the hierarchy and workload of each employee (ISACA, 2013). For instance, a junior or external employee may have access to restricted content and entries.

Next, the management would have to suggest a particular mobile configuration to be applied to employees’ devices, which continuously have access to the company’s data. Such a measure would curb loose wireless networks as well as Bluetooth from actively transmitting data in the background (Dillon, Stahl, & Vossen, 2015). Likewise, the IT management team would reinforce the need for performing constant mobile security audits coupled with network penetration testing. The company would have to hire at least twice a year the services of an externally sourced security testing firm to audit all the devices that remotely access the cloud-based CRM application (ISACA, 2013). This security practice would give the management a clear picture of all the possible security threats.

In brief, the increased use of mobile devices around the workplace has brought about challenges to the management of various organizations due to the possibility of malware threats and compromised access to data. Companies need to implement a secure cloud-based CRM software application as a measure of reinforcing the security infrastructure in terms of reliable access toinformation, thus protecting employees, assets, and the entire business public image. 

References

Dillon, S., Stahl, F., & Vossen, G. (2015). “BYOD and governance of the personal cloud.” International Journal of Cloud Applications and Computing (IJCAC), 23-35.

ISACA. (2013). “Using personal mobile devices in a business setting.” ISACA Journal Archives. Retrieved May 5, 2020, from, https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/past-issues/2013/jonline-using-personal-mobile-devices-in-a-business-setting