5 Mobile Phone Security Threats Your Employees Need to Know About

For many organizations such as yours, mobile phone security should be the topmost priority. Because your employees are trusted with private company information, and if such information were to go into the wrong hands, that would not work out well for your company.

This is why it is the company’s job to make sure their employees know where to safely track when it comes to sensitive data. For instance, you should make sure that the cellular service they are providing to their employees is from a reliable service provider. 

Hundreds of cellular service providers in the US ensure smooth communication and internet data such as Xfinity. With Xfinity Mobile service, your employees can enjoy unlimited internet data as well as a secure connection. Dial the Xfinity customer service phone number to learn more since providing your employees with a secure cellular network is the first step to making sure their mobile phone devices are safe from any external threats.

Mobile Phone Threats Your Employees Should Know About

Whether your employees are permanently working from home or in the office, they need to be aware of threats in their mobile phone devices that could put the company in a vulnerable position. Let’s look at the following scenarios to understand what kind of threats they might experience in their mobile phone devices and how they can avoid them:

Social Engineering Attacks

Such attacks are referred to when you receive fake emails or text messages whose main purpose is to get you to give up some private information such as passwords or download files into your system that turns out to be malware.

Teach your employees how to spot phishing emails and text messages to help them avoid falling into their traps. You can also ensure that the number of employees who have access to sensitive data and information is limited. Because the more employees have access to sensitive information, the more social engineering attacks against your company can be initiated.

Malicious Apps

Around 85% of mobile apps are insecure and mobile phone hackers know that. Through these insecure apps, these hackers continue to harvest information, resources, connections, etc. from mobile phone users, all the while targeting those mobile phone apps.

When you download an app from Apple App Store or Google Play Store, you are prompted to allow permission for a list of things to these apps. We have all been guilty of tapping on “Accept” without really exploring what we are letting these apps use on our mobile phone devices. This lack of scrutiny can leave your mobile phone vulnerable.

It doesn’t matter if the app seems legit, if you are allowing it access, the app has the potential to mine any corporate data and send it to a third party like your competitors.

Unsecured Public Wi-Fi  

Public Wi-Fi is generally considered less secure because you don’t know who owns that network connection, whether it is encrypted or not, or who is monitoring this network. And since companies offer work-from-home options, their employees are more susceptible to connecting their company-provided devices to public Wi-Fi which poses a threat to the company itself.

Cybercriminals can set up a Wi-Fi connection that seems authentic but are actually just a front for capturing data passing through their systems.

The best way to protect your company in this scenario is to allow employees access to VPN service when accessing company information from a remote location. VPN connection provides a private and secure connection, whether the devices are connected to a private network or a public one.

Weak Passwords

One study stated that 99% of users use the same passwords on their work accounts as well as personal ones. This is one of the ways users are putting their accounts in a vulnerable position for hackers to enter into.

If your employees use the same password (and the ones that can be easily guessed such as names, birthdates, sequential numbers, etc.) on their mobile devices, it threatens your company’s security. And if employees’ personal and work accounts are accessible from the same mobile phone device, then it makes it easier for hackers to breach their system.

Employees should be requested to create their passwords their password manager programs and two-factor authentication to be able to use company applications on their mobile phones.

Final Thoughts

For the sake of your company’s privacy and security, you must implement training for your employees about the security threats they can possibly receive on their mobile phone devices. The above-mentioned tips should help you get started. The more your employees are informed about security threats on their mobile phone devices, the better chances you have of preventing the company’s information from falling into the wrong hands.  

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