The Covid-19 pandemic and increasing power outages have led to a surge in the number of people working remotely, often using their smartphones, tablets, and laptops to connect to unsecured public Wi-Fi hotspots.
This increased mobility has exposed these digital devices to a range of cybersecurity risks, including phishing and malware attacks, as well as mobile-specific threats such as application-based risks and device and operating system-based exploits.
In fact, a survey conducted in 2021 found that while 71% of businesses considered mobile devices to be essential to their operations, 40% also saw them as their organization’s biggest security risk, and 53% reported significant consequences as a result of a mobile device security breach. Additionally, the survey revealed that 93% of Android devices were using outdated versions of the operating system, and 49% of employees didn’t mind if their family and friends used their professional devices for personal purposes.
To safeguard mobile devices in the corporate network, it’s important to use strong PINs, passwords, and biometric login methods such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanners, as well as multi-factor authentication, which requires users to provide multiple authentication factors to access an application, account, or VPN.
It is also advisable to implement a Zero Trust model, which establishes trust based on a combination of identity and context-based features, and zero trust network access (ZTNA), which controls and verifies access to resources based on user and device identity.
