In today’s business environment, using mobile devices isn’t just a business requirement, it’s an employee expectation. But for some organizations, these devices present security challenges that prevent or limit their ability to support a fully mobile enterprise. It’s not enough that they just deploy or manage iOS and Android devices, they also need to defend them against advanced attacks with confidence.

 

Understand your level of risk

A recent survey of security professionals showed 75% of companies allow personal devices to connect to corporate networks. Workers use these same devices to download personal apps and email – exposing business networks to phishing scams and malware infections. Just one compromised device can let cybercriminals steal sensitive information, or even spy on closed-door meetings using device microphones or cameras.

Is your business ready for the next mobile breach? Find out!
Download: Gartner Market Guide: Mobile Threat Defense solutions

Discovering a breach takes an average of six months, according to a 2015 Ponemon Institute report, and a response to fix one another three months. This means once breaches are found, the damage is already done. Remediation can be costly, as is the damage to brand reputation. Even if the damage is under control, a company may not know which vital trade secrets were compromised until their competitive advantage is lost.

 

Find your mobile exposure points

Embedded malware or infections of multiple types of malware like credential stealers, keyloggers, mRATS, and unauthorized root kits put sensitive data at significant risk. Unknown or “zero-day” malware can be particularly difficult to find – until it’s too late. Quarantining infected devices from the company network and assets is key. Only after users are informed and the threats removed can they touch the network and assets again.

Keeping devices and data safe from these kinds of cyberattacks requires advanced behavioral analysis that senses and stops attacks before they can start. But these solutions also have to be easy to use, simple to manage, and they can’t have any impact on device performance or battery life.

 

Cover your assets

One of the ways to do this is by deploying a lightweight app to monitor device behavior. Then, to keep devices performing optimally, a powerful cloud engine should work with the information the app collects to evaluate risks in apps, networks, and on devices – including the operating system and kernel code vulnerabilities.

Your bottom line is always important, so keeping an eye on implementation and ongoing maintenance costs is critical. Solutions should be delivered with standard, best-practice configurations that an organization can modify to fit its individual security needs. Better still, vendors should offer professional services that help offload these tasks if resources aren’t readily available or unknowledgeable.

 

Maintain a well-oiled machine

Keeping the solution operating its best, especially at scale, means it needs to be kept up-to-date at all times. So app updates on devices should be carried out automatically through the Apple App Store and Google Play. Updates and new features of the solution’s management console and analysis engines should also be performed automatically in the cloud.

With a comprehensive solution like this, organizations can arm themselves against tomorrow’s threats – ones that Mobile Device and Enterprise Mobility Management (MDM and EMM) solutions on their own can’t satisfy. Add to that integration with SEIM solutions and IT and security professionals can have a complete view of the threat landscape across their entire network.

Think your EMM or MDM is all the protection you need? Think again.
Download: Gartner: When and How to Go Beyond EMM to Ensure Secure Enterprise Mobility

Naturally, investing in mobile threat defense has practical advantages like enhancing or extending the life and the value of existing MDM and EMM solutions. Integration enables dynamic policy adjustments based on behavioral risk analysis of individual devices. The result is a level of security that ensures devices organizations provide, and the personal devices employees use for work purposes, are secure. Perhaps more importantly, this level of protection is the best way to safeguard valuable company data from exposure.

Jeff Zacuto is a San Franciscan, gadget geek, and senior mobile security marketer at Check Point Software Technologies. His 15 years of experience with mobile technology, security and compliance gives him a unique perspective on the needs and expectations of IT and security professionals, end users and corporate executives.

 

Learn more about Check Point Mobile Threat Prevention

Check Point Mobile Threat Prevention analyses mobile threat risks at the app, network, and device level using a lightweight app and powerful cloud engine. This design allows for more comprehensive protection from known and unknown threats, and shifts resource-intensive analysis to the cloud to minimize any impact on user experience and device performance.

It’s is easy to install and manage, reducing the time and cost associated with implementing, deploying, and maintaining new solutions. It also leverages the power of the Check Point ThreatCloud and the expertise of the Check Point research team which has nearly three decades of industry-leading, world-class cybersecurity knowledge and support.

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