10 Best Practices for Iron-Clad Mobile Device Management (MDM)

Workers now rely on personal devices to stay connected to the office. But the convenience of accessing company data at Starbucks may come at a price. 

Cybercriminals are targeting mobile device users more frequently than ever before. They most often attack their unsuspecting victims via high-risk apps with malicious code or nefarious email attachments. 

The unfortunate reality is stolen-corporate data is worth a lot of money. According to a Ponemon Institute study, organizations lose an average of $3.44 million due to lost or stolen mobile devices and $3.65 million because of malware-infected devices annually. The average cost for a mega breach in 2021 (50 to 65 million records) was a whopping $401 million.  

Once hackers steal records, they either blackmail the companies that own the data or sell the information to the dark web. The industries most at risk are healthcare, government, and finance.  

With this in mind, IT admins must constantly balance employee “wants and needs” against potential security risks. Choosing the right MDM software, overseeing identity and access management (IAM), engaging multi-factor authentication (MFA), and constructing device policies are paramount. 

This article will provide a roadmap to implement a strong mobile device management (MDM) program. Use it to identify gaps in your existing MDM strategy or start from scratch. 

 

1. Identify Mobile Needs

Successful mobile device management begins with choosing the right MDM platform. Unfortunately, that’s sometimes easier said than done. 

As Amit Pandey, Citrix Group VP of mobile platforms, says, the most common mistake organizations make with MDM implementation is choosing a software solution before assessing their team’s total mobility applications, wants, and needs. 

For example, say the VP of sales insists his team would be more productive with Salesforce access via mobile devices. The IT department then scrambles to accommodate their request, choosing an MDM solution based on Salesforce alone.

 

 

Fast-forward several months, and other department leaders follow suit. Suddenly, the original MDM no longer meets the set of solution requirements. At this point, the…