Business is Mobile. And That Means Smart Wi-Fi Security is Key
By Philip Mustain, MOBOLIZE | CEO, Co-Founder
Most every worker today carries a mobile phone or device to connect to fellow work employees, customers or vendors. We rarely sit at a desk anymore tied to a computer, but drive to meetings, travel for business or start the day at the coffee shop or end the day responding to a work email as we take family out to dinner or the movies. It never seems to stop.
In addition, there is a growing trend for mobile-first. Companies, especially small and virtual ones, are finding that the best way to stay connected is via the hand-held device that is always with the employee. The Business Journals reported that 70 percent of small business operators see wireless services and applications as “extremely critical or very critical for the operation of their businesses.” Mobile technology is the ecosystem for not only keeping employees connected, but to growing their companies. Again, mobile never stops.
What also never stops is the fact that much of the connection between employees, customers and vendors is via public Wi-Fi, and that’s a security issue. It’s a security issue because company business is communicated with email and text data. Information about customers, sales opportunities, business issues, and – what’s really important – your list of banking or credit card passwords or data.
The employee may not be sending data about this at all, but if his or her unsecure phone is hacked, the hacker has access to files on the phone. Passwords. Bank accounts. Credit card information. Contact lists. Private business information. And much more.
Sitting at the local coffee shop or your individual rented office space can be dangerous without public Wi-Fi security, even if there is a password to get on the network. The public router that manages the Wi-Fi network can be hacked even though there is a password.
The solution is to encrypt data traffic on the device itself before it is even sent to the router. Organizations like Sprint understand this issue and offer Secure Wi-Fi as part of their new Sprint Unlimited business package. It’s the only secure app to use a SmartVPN® that is resident on the phone or mobile device itself. The SmartVPN® encrypts only encrypted data, so it doesn’t use a lot of battery power like traditional Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and doesn’t break apps that are already encrypted.
And that keeps the business employee smart and in control of their data and the seemingly never stopping communications for business growth and success. Very smart.
