Security
Your staff’s mobile phone could be opening your business up for an attack
An article written this year reported that over 30% of people do not password protect their mobile devices yet some apps installed on these devices have direct access to some of your most important accounts such as online banking!
We all know that mobile devices such as tablets and phones can be just as smart as their desktop cousins so why do we password protect our desktop computers but not our mobile devices?
An article written this year reported that over 30% of people do not password protect their mobile devices yet some apps installed on these devices have direct access to some of your most important accounts such as online banking!
Many of us use upwards of ten apps on our devices during a typical week. The majority of these apps are logged into our most critical accounts including email, text, banking, social media, payment apps and others that are linked to our credit cards. And because mobile app developers know that we are more apt to use their programs if they are easy to access and convenient to use, a lot of apps are programmed to automatically keep you logged in for days, weeks, months, or until you manually revoke access.
Source: http://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/unprotected-mobile-devices
What is important to small business owners is that your staff could be using their mobile devices to receive business emails and also access online critical business systems such as the companies CRM.
Companies increasingly concerned on staff using personal devices
Almost a third of large European companies reported lost customer data and leaked confidential information as a result of security breaches through the use of personal mobile devices for work.According to a study by Samsung, the South Korean technology group, nine in 10 large European companies have seen or expected some form of security scare in the past two years owing to the increasingly prevalent use of employee’s own devices.
Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0ff3241c-2cfb-11e3-a0ac-00144feab7de.html
Because most web browsers offer to save your username and password for online accounts your critical business systems are wide open to public access when the mobile device is lost or stolen. Its just a matter of looking up the history within the web browser and trying each link.
As a business owner you need to make sure that any device used by your staff to access business systems and data has password protection.
Very good tips here => 10 tips for securing your smartphone
