Employees want to work remotely more often during the holiday season than any other time of year. More off-site work means more chances for hackers to exploit weak networks. At this busy time of year, you need the full protection of mobile endpoint security. How does it work and how can you be confident that all your employees’ online work is protected, no matter where they are?
What Is Mobile Endpoint Security?
Mobile endpoint security is an approach to protecting all devices that have access to your business network. Business and personal devices, apps, software and data accessible through these devices is secured from the different methods hackers use to try to gain access to devices and sensitive data.
How Endpoint Security Protects Your Network
Mobile endpoint security offers multiple routes to improving your business’ cybersecurity defenses. For example, you can remotely wipe lost or stolen devices through the administrator center. You can also deny access to files and accounts.
These tools require stronger authentication, empower you to limit user access based on the employee’s role, and restrict devices that don’t meet your security standards.
Mobile security solutions protect against:
- Malicious websites
- Vulnerable apps
- Ransomware
- Phishing attacks
- Device exploits
- Jailbreaking
- Operating system (OS) exploits
- Man-in-the-middle attacks
These cyberthreats are unlikely to go away anytime soon. It’s essential to be vigilant. Endpoint security utilizes a variety of approaches to improve cybersecurity defenses, including:
- Virtual private networks (VPNs)
- Mobile device management
- Endpoint protection platform
- Cloud access security broker
- Secure web gateway
- Multifactor authentication
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Protect Employees Wherever They Are
During the holiday season, employees travel more and, therefore, work remotely more frequently. At this busy and joyful time of year, exceptions may be made to remote work protocols that are in place the rest of the year.
While more remote access to your company network may be more convenient for employees, it also leads to a higher potential for security risks. Unsecure WiFi networks and personal devices that are outdated are only two of many possible security concerns that arise due to remote work.
There is no more important time to protect your network than this busy time of year when remote work is so common. Mobile endpoint solutions, such as Intune from Microsoft, can build the best defenses for your network, no matter where your employees are located.
Key Features of Mobile Endpoint Security
Not all security solutions provide the same degree of protection. Some include the ability to update employee devices, but they don’t offer comprehensive monitoring capabilities. Others do not offer the ability to customize your users and roles to the degree you need.
Microsoft Intune from Microsoft is an Azure cloud-based service that provides a comprehensive framework and the necessary tools for protecting your employees as they navigate the online world. Nortec can set up, configure, and maintain Intune through our managed cloud services.
Identity Management
Mobile security should always include identity management. This allows you to manage which identities have access to specific resources on your network. With identity management, your business can implement a zero-trust approach, where users only have access to files and data that they need per their role, and employees must constantly authenticate their identities. Through this approach, the information that a potential hacker can access is limited.
If you currently use Microsoft 365 or Azure Active Directory and have assigned users to roles and groups, those can be maintained through Intune in the Endpoint Manager admin center. Intune uses role-based access control, where each role has its own create, read, upload, and delete permissions.
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Device Management
It’s important for employees to be able to work on their preferred device. You can empower them to do so while implementing strong device management policies to increase security. Require personal devices used for work to be enrolled in your business’ device management services.
Microsoft Intune will allow you to manage devices that use Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS/iPadOS, and Android systems. Devices that are using older operating systems may not be supported and should not be used for work with any sensitive data.
Your administrators can set compliance rules that require device passwords to be complex, have firewalls, and observe security baselines. If devices don’t meet your organization’s compliance standards, then administrators can set rules so that these noncompliant devices cannot access company resources such as Teams or Outlook. Device management improves your defenses across the board, from Microsoft Teams security to phishing attempts that land in your inbox.
App Management
There’s an app for everything these days, and the chances are good that your employees utilize a wide range of apps to perform their work. But how do you know that those apps won’t lead to a breach on your network?
Easily deploy the apps your employees use through Intune. You can configure apps before they are installed and protect apps not only on organization-owned devices, but on personal devices as well.
When employees use apps that need updating or patches, they can expose your business network to security risks. With Microsoft Azure and Intune, you can easily update apps on employee devices so that they are using the latest and most secure version of each app.
Partner With Nortec for Mobile Security
The combination of Microsoft Azure and Intune for mobile security provides a multilayered approach to protecting your network, no matter where your employees are working from. Nortec is a trusted Microsoft Solutions Provider – employee identities, devices, and apps are protected.
Don’t let your guard down during the holidays. Book a consultation today!