In the never-ending quest for perfect enterprise security, mobile apps must certainly be part of the picture.
The tough part is, most companies don’t just have to worry about the apps they personally build, or have someone else develop. Today’s workforce is so mobile-focused that companies must also worry about external apps they have little or no control over.
Appthority, a mobile security company, just released their Q3 2017 Enterprise Mobile Security Pulse Report (full report here), which highlights some of the biggest mobile security challenges facing the enterprise today. The full report is worth a read, but we were particularly interested in the section on blacklisted apps.
According to the report, iOS apps were often blacklisted because of a risk of data leakage, while Android apps were usually blacklisted because malware was detected. On the whole, most of the banned iOS apps were social media apps, while most of the banned Android apps were tools.
While you can’t necessarily control which apps your employees download (in a BYOD setting, at least), you can limit which apps are able to access your network. Or, even better, you could deploy an enterprise app store in order to regain control of which employees have access to which apps. In either case, it’s absolutely essential to understand what apps your employees are using so you can ensure they aren’t a security risk.
This report is a good reminder of why you must always keep an eye on the apps being used within your business. With risks of data leaks, malware, and more growing each and every day, it’s absolutely essential to stay ahead of the game.
