In today’s uncertain working world, it is vital your teams can work anywhere. However, mobile working introduces fresh security challenges.

Before the pandemic, mobile workers accounted for almost 40% of the global workforce and entire businesses went remote, tapping into talent from around the world to drive growth and reduce the operating costs of running large workplaces. It is the future in a world where soulless office cubicles and noisy open office spaces are fast disappearing. It is also a win-win for many employees too: they can find a better work-life balance and be more productive and engaged.

What Are the Security Challenges?

However, there is more to remote work than just giving all your employees a smartphone or introducing a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy. It is a culture change too. The fear business leaders have of losing control is perhaps the biggest blocker, but one most have faced during 2020 without any soft landing.

More use of mobile devices expands attack surfaces substantially, giving cyber-criminals new opportunities to exploit your most valuable asset – data. So what your expensive mobile devices? They have a bad habit of getting lost or stolen. With the number of connected devices currently standing at 3.5 for every person on Earth, information security needs to be scalable, multilayered and centrally managed.

What’s more, there’s another problem: more people connecting to company resources over unsecured home and public networks.

Employees’ Device Use Risks Corporate Security

Let’s face it: many of us are guilty of some pretty appalling mobile security habits. Over a quarter pf mobile users do not even lock smartphone screens, despite devices being used for everything from business email to personal banking. Losing the device itself is nothing compared to hackers or other unauthorized third parties having access to every connected account and file on the device.

With teams who are regularly working remotely, you need to lay down ground rules. A robust BYOD policy is a critical starting point. It should clearly state which devices and apps are allowed, which security measures must be in place and how corporate data can be…