Employees are bringing devices to work in ever-increasing numbers. Gone are the days of IT handing out devices with just the company-approved software. Now more and more users want to use the devices they own and like, and these devices do double-duty for work and home.

This brings up a lot of issues for any industry where privacy and security is important. You want to make sure you know exactly where account information is and who has access to it. For banks and credit unions, the penalties for lost data can be severe.

You’ll need policies that give data access to those who truly need it. Policies that require passcodes, encryption, and more. Did you know that early versions of some platforms have very few security features? Policies, if enforced correctly, can be used to keep devices on later versions of the software.

Alerts are helpful, too. Would your IT department like to know when a device is jailbroken or rooted? How about when a user exceeds the threshold on their monthly data plan? Mobile Device Management (MDM) can do all this and more.

A good MDM solution lets you:

• Enforce passcode type, complexity, length and how often they have to be changed
• Specify if users can set their devices to show the text of the passcodes when they enter them
• Specify if the data on the device must be encrypted (when supported by the manufacturer)
• Turn off device features like the camera, Bluetooth, and tethering
• Blacklist, approve or require certain apps
• Specify enforcement actions that will be taken automatically if the device is out of compliance
• Securely push apps to devices
• Securely push documents to devices and prevent them from being forwarded, if necessary
• Perform actions on the device, including:
  • Remote wipe
  • Remote lock
  • Block
  • Locate
  • Reset passcode

For Financial institutions, it’s not enough to say that your devices are secure. You have to be able to prove it if you need to. If a device with financial information is lost, you’ll need to be able to prove that the device was encrypted, or that it was wiped after the loss was reported.

You’ll need to be able to see:

• All the software and apps installed
• If the device is fully encrypted
• The history of the device, including if it has been wiped
• The total roaming mobile data usage for the last six months
• Whether devices are owned by your institution or by the user
• If the device is jailbroken or routed (a potential source of malware)