Increased mobility technology for SMBs leads to greater security risks

Thursday, May 24, 2012

As more companies turn toward mobile technology, allowing their workers to conduct their daily responsibilities when out of the office, security risks have increased, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses, Computerworld reports.

As the report states, risks are already abundant for companies whose employees access social networking or video-sharing sites, and with mobile devices being harder to secure, the dangers are increased when employee access such sites.

SMBs need to be weary of the data being sent among mobile devices, and they need to be especially careful with the sharing process, ensuring security and monitoring potential data leaks. The report recommends SMBs to attain an all-inclusive view of "who is entering the network and what data or software resides on mobile devices," to ensure security. It also advises SMBs to "create a well-controlled but user-friendly environment that protects sensitive business information."

In addition, Computerworld author Kathleen Else recommends SMBs secure their VPNs by configuring all traffic to pass through tunnels, where IT professionals can view all those accessing the managed network. Else states SMBs can secure mobile devices by combining password protection strategies with firewalls or encryption, which, in case any of those devices are lost, would prevent unauthorized users from simply logging on and siphoning information.

Keeping valuable information private and secure is incredibly important for SMBs, as a report from Hewlett-Packard found 70 percent of SMBs that experience a security breach go out of business within one year.