In the recent years, we have seen an huge rise of mobile endpoints like smartphones, laptops and tablets, as a large number of employees are connecting to corporate networks from a wide variety of places and devices. Today due to Covid-19, the work from home model has become very popular. But this multitude of mobile devices is causing a lot of complications for cybersecurity.
What is MDM?
It is Mobile Devices Management.
MDM is a software platform that is used by IT departments and administrators to manage all the mobile endpoints, including your smartphones, laptops, tablets, and even IoT devices. It does not matter who own these endpoints. It also does not make much difference whether these MDM solutions are hosted onsite or on the cloud. Ultimate goal of an MDM is to find the right balance between management, productivity and compliance needs.
It plays a vital role in securing your corporate networks while allowing your employees to continue to work more efficiently. These MDM solutions thrive on time-tested 'Client-Server Model' to function properly.
The first component is an MDM server management console, which is stored in an organization’s data center and enables administrators to configure, manage, and enforce policies. The second component is an MDM agent that receives and implements these policies on users’ devices.
IT admins configure and assign security or access policies, using the server-side management console. The client component is then installed on each and every mobile device which receives all the directives that have been assigned from the management console. This model is relatively easy to understand.
Policies are configured by IT administrators through the MDM server management console, then the server pushes the policies to the MDM agent. The agent applies the specified policies onto a device by using application programming interfaces (APIs) that are built into the device’s operating system.
All modern MDM software can instantly discover any new endpoint making a connection-request to the network. Today’s MDM is much more streamlined and advanced, and they fully enable organizations to secure, monitor, manage, and enforce policies on employees’ mobile devices.
The core purpose of MDM is to protect the corporate network! Besides boosting the security of business networks, it also enables employees to use their own devices (BYOD), rather than corporate-supplied devices, to work more efficiently and be more productive.
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Fueled by BYODMDM software is part of the wider enterprise mobility management (EMM) family, which incorporates enterprise file syncing and sharing, identity and access management (IAM), and mobile application management (MAM).
MDM, in the context of controlling PCs, is referred to as unified endpoint management (UEM), which enables organizations to manage all of their enterprise devices from one single location.
The risks associated with the BYOD trends originally led to organizations implementing MDM software that helped their IT teams monitor, manage, and secure all devices brought into the workplace. These MDM tools still remain crucial to securing your workplace in the face of increasingly sophisticated and costly cyberattacks and data breaches.
As your employees increasingly expect to be able to use their personal devices at work, you need to be able to secure those devices and keep their users safe. Some employees who want to use their personal devices at work will do so even if your organization does not have a BYOD policy, [it is a practice also known as shadow IT].
That's why, it is therefore vital for you to implement a strong BYOD policy that enables your employees to use their own devices without creating potential gaps in security.
The onus therefore rests on you to find and deploy a reliable and secure mobile endpoint management solution.
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Additional Benefits of MDMMDM helps you to ensure that information on users’ devices, especially devices that are lost or stolen, does not fall into the hands of cyber criminals.
A lost corporate device presents a major security threat to an organization. MDM enables them to lock, locate, and sometimes wipe devices that have been lost, and in some cases, initiate that process automatically. An MDM tool can use a geofencing feature to create alerts and initiate actions if devices suddenly appear in a suspicious or unusual location that could be a sign it has been stolen.
It also minimizes the risk of devices being infected by malware or other viruses that hackers use to compromise or steal sensitive corporate data. Hackers know all the vulnerabilities these mobile devices bring and they increasingly release new threats targeting mobile device vulnerabilities, such as SMS-based phishing attacks that spread keyloggers, malicious applications, and Trojans, etc.
I have mentioned above that MDM relies on policy-based enforcement. You can design policy-based security, such as configuring corporate devices to require a personal identification number (PIN), restricting actions available to your users, or preventing the use of specific applications. This can be tricky on personal devices, but you can use time-based restrictions to balance employee happiness with security.
Tablets and smartphones can be difficult enough to manage in the BYOD era. After all, they’re arguably less secure than laptops and desktops due to a lack of pre-installed malware protection. But when IoT is added to the mix, especially if your employees aren’t aware of the security threat it poses, the importance of the MDM multiplies.
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MDM vs. UEM
You can expect the following functionality from your MDM deployment:
• Device inventory and tracking
• Mobile support and management
• Applications to allow and deny
• Remote service management
• Passcode enforcement
• Alerts the admin when users bypass jailbreaking restrictions
NOTE:
If your current EDR system is not offering full-fledged MDM features, then it is high time to get one that does.
Let us now discuss UEM...You can think of Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) as a supercharged version of MDM that builds upon the functionalities. While MDM can manage devices through rules and policies, UEM takes things further by adding a unique set of features.
You have no choice but to realize the fact that securing access for all these devices, apps and data can get in the way of your business needs. To meet these new demands, MDM has evolved into a more streamlined version — Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM).
Going one step further is Unified Endpoint Management (UEM), which not only manages smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, IoT devices, but adds capabilities to oversee documents, applications, content, and access and identity management. Thus, UEM is much more enhance version...
UEM’s diverse capabilities allow IT and security teams to find a better balance between productivity and security.
Unlike MDMs, which require direct network connectivity, UEM solutions enable over-the-air device registration to reduce IT involvement. Whether your organization prefers Apple, Microsoft, or Google, UEM supports all three enrolment programs (Apple’s Business Manager, Microsoft’s Windows 10 AutoPilot, Samsung’s Knox Mobile Enrollment, and Google’s Zero-Touch). Kindly don't expect me to go into details of these here...
Plus, UEM can integrate with existing Microsoft Active Directory/Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (AD/LDAP) infrastructure. It saves your time by allowing AD/LDAP records and groups to be imported directly into the UEM.
With UEM, your employees can access encrypted content repositories and they can also safely use third-party sharing solutions like Google Drive, Sharepoint, and Box. Compared to basic MDMs, this deeper integration allows your employees to be both productive and secure.
When you are evaluating a UEM solution, it’s critical for you to take the time for due diligence to ensure synchronicity with your organization’s specific business goals and security policies. One example might be:
• How an employee termination is managed?
• What happens to their smartphone under your BYOD policy?
• Will access to your corporate networks be automatically revoked?
• Can any corporate data (either saved or cached) be instantly wiped?
• Is their personal data separated from corporate data?
• How are malicious attacks detected and remediated?
Before you choose any MDM or UEM solution, you must set out and document these policies clearly, so that you can decide what is specifically needed and continuously reviewed to ensure best practices are maintained.
The best MDM or UEM solutions should provide you a single pane of glass type visibility into the status of your entire fleet of endpoints and integrates with MTD solutions to take automated remediation when threats arise on mobile devices.
Because as the saying goes, “You can’t secure what you can’t manage, and you can’t manage what you can’t see.”
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This Article Was Written & published by Meena R, Senior Manager - IT, at Luminis Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd, India.
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