I have written a few times about data and security at length but in the current age it is worth paying special attention to protecting Mobile data. The mobility of your data means that it can be accesses in ways and in places where you do not have such a strong handle on it. In terms of data location, or where your data lives, data can be stored either on your devices like your laptops and phones, on a server or on the cloud.
Then you must look at who has access to the information. This gives you a security context, regardless of where the data is being stored. You have to know who exactly has access to which data, whether it is a group of people or an individual who has the access. This adds further protection as it gives you a further reference point for identifying and future security issues such as the leak of data.
You also need to know where the data is being accessed from. In this particular case, you need to know the place from which people are using the information such as, are they using the data only at workstations or company issues laptops and devices. Or are they able to access the data on their personal devices like their iPhones or Androids. This is very important since the risk of data theft or leaking rises exponentially when the data is accessible on a personal device.
Not only do you need to know if the data is accessible, you also need to know if the data is then retained on the device it was accessed from. This can be in the form of cached data, the remnants of the access sessions or through direct download. This is where security permissions come into play. Can a person change the date through read/write? Is it read only? Does the data remain on the server or cloud and the employee can only view it?
To combat the myriad of issues that may encounter while trying to manage mobile data on personal devices it might be worth looking at mobile device management. Mobile device management refers to a range of products and services that enables organizations to deploy and support corporate applications to mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, enforcing policies and maintaining the desired level of IT control across multiple platforms.
In terms of security and accountability, MDM software enables you to create a process whereby devices are managed. You have visibility in terms of knowing what can and can’t be done on the device and company information can be remotely wiped. So, in that instance, where they brought their personal phone in and connected to their email, they would have to abide by whatever policies are in place, and know that their devices are managed to an extent.
Following these steps not only helps protect your mobile data, but you get a better insight into your security and cloud platform and infrastructure as it concerns your data.
