Mobile Device Management Strategy (MDM) Explained

Mobile Device Management (MDM), now known as Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is a system through which organizations let its employees use mobile devices and applications securely. It ensures secure handling of corporate data by mobile device users.

Many organizations give the freedom of working from home to their employees and most of their processes are managed by remote workers. These days, enterprises are even inclined towards BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) where the employees are encouraged to bring their own device to work.

It helps minimizes the IT asset cost considerably. But this new practice of BOYD attracts a lot of security threats. Hackers can tap into unsecured systems of employees easily and that is where Mobile Device Management comes into play.

A mobile device management solution can manage devices running on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS Blackberry OS and Chrome OS. Mobile device management gives the power to manage smartphones, tablets, kiosk devices, etc. from one central system.

Why You Need Mobile Device Management (MDM)?

When the number of managed devices grows, you lose visibility into the devices as well as the users. You should also have the information about how many devices are connecting and retiring from the operating system.

And receiving this kind of information for a large number of devices becomes difficult if you are not using mobile device management software. Enterprise mobility and security applications provide single sign-on across devices in your datacenter or on the cloud with the help of identity-driven security features.

With the use of a mobile device management system, you can take care of the following points:

Number of devices that are managed by the system
How many devices that are not managed
Number of devices that are compliant with corporate requirements
Devices that are non-compliant with corporate requirements
Time for which the corporate devices where used
Changes established in the past months
Repairs that has to be made and their costs

Every interaction leaves fingerprints in log files which do not affect the user, and these log files can be used for making enterprise mobility reports. With all this data, you can analyze whether the number of non-complaint devices are increasing or decreasing.

List of Mobile Device Management (MDM) Strategies

Enterprises can ensure their mobile device security is on point by implementing the following strategies with the help of a mobile device management system.

Mobile Encryption

Mobile device management tool provides three types of encryption techniques for mobile devices: device level encryption, data level encryption and system level encryption. Device level encryption is dedicated to the end devices. It ensures protection when the devices are lost or stolen.

Data level encryption ensures protection of data. It provides data security by encrypting the data stored in the devices. Network security is the strongest layer of protection for an enterprise. It encrypts the data transmitted to unidentified networks and secures the channel between two endpoints.

Remote Access Limitation

Remote access are secured and limited so that hackers can’t read the data and are not able to enter into the system easily. A mobile device management solution can control or restrict data flow across the system by establishing a secure connection between the system network and mobile devices, making it difficult for hackers to enter into the network.

Mobile Security Audits

Security testing in the entire system should be done at least once a year. Earlier, auditing was done by mobile security testing companies. These firms provided solutions against the detected threats and safeguarded your data from potential attacks in the future.

But now, with the help of mobile device management software, it can be done whenever you want to, without taking any external help.

Compliance Reporting

Compliance reporting can be done with the help of mobile device management tool as well. Reports are organized in an understandable way, so that you don’t have to spend much time to interpret the data. In that way, more time can be spent in gathering insights.

Device Location Tracking

This feature comes in handy when you want to locate a threat or an attack to or from a mobile device. Mobile devices that are scattered across different office locations can be brought under one system with mobile device management, making it easier to track potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policy

Mobile device management solutions follows Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy, which is used to detect potential data breaches and prevent them by monitoring, detecting and blocking sensitive data.

With DLP, MDM software can take control the right to access data on a system. It can access, share, edit and delete rights provided to a mobile user which enhances mobile security.

Mobile device management is extremely essential in today’s digital age where people prefer to work from different locations. But safety and security cannot be compromised for any reason. That is why, adopting a mobile device management solution is important for a business to stay protected.