Mobile Security

The use of mobile phones and laptops is enormously convenient. However, this convenience is associated with the requisite bottlenecks and risks. Flexibility, mobility, the new way of working: three terms that have gained a lot of ground in business life in recent years. We can’t imagine being without laptops in our daily lives. However, securing these systems, which are more often outside of than inside the network, poses a challenge. That’s because outside of the network laptops do not have the luxury of a firewall or a web filtering solution at the network’s gateway. This makes laptops that are outside of the network vulnerable to threats on the web.

Another risk is that laptops are less – or sometimes even not – equipped with the newest updates and upgrades when they are outside of the network. This too increases the risk of laptop misuse. Desktop firewall, virtual patching and URL filtering are the most prominent things that can be locally used on laptops in order to eliminate the risks to which these devices are exposed outside of the network.

Nowadays many employees have a smartphone where they receive their email, including their business email, in combination with business contact information, agenda items and more. However, protection of these data is often neglected. One bottleneck in this situation is that employees are not eager to restrain the use of their smartphone as a result of their organizations’ security policy. After all, the smartphone is often their own property: the “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)” concept. Hence, the challenge is finding the right balance.