BYOD, MDM: Small Businesses Blind to Mobile Data Loss Danger

More bad news on the bring your own device (BYOD) front for internal IT departments, (but good news for managed services providers). A recent BYOD study revealed that only 60 percent of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have a basic understanding of what kind of company data is being stored on personal mobile devices. Is this another way for MSPs to leverage expertise and knowledge in this critical area of IT? Here’s the scoop.

Endpoint protection solutions vendor Kaspersky Lab released this study on BYOD to emphasize the importance of a proper mobility strategy. According to the study, 35 percent of IT managers said they had strict enough rules and policies in place to provide an accurate overview of company information contained on personal devices, leaving the majority of IT managers out of the picture.

“Only when clear BYOD rules are in place, can adequate steps be taken to build a robust security solution should a device be lost or stolen,” said Kaspersky Lab Senior Security Research David Emm in his prepared statement. “To best protect data a policy should include file encryption, blocking access to the corporate network and, in the best case, wiping all data on the device.”

Kaspersky recommends leveraging mobile device management software (MDM) to tackle the BYOD challenge. The company said encryption of data on devices is one of the most effective measures, however, modern solutions should also offer remote data wipe functions and GPS localization of lost devices.

How can MSPs capitalize?

MSPs should keep track of all of these studies. Making the pitch to potential customers will become a lot easier with these in your back pocket. MSPs understand the challenges with mobile devices, internal IT departments do not. Show how your expertise and knowledge in the topic makes a difference through your services.