Cybersecurity is a growing concern for businesses worldwide, especially for organizations that maintain fleets of computers for their employees to use for work related tasks.

This is why companies and organizations that want to increase their cybersecurity efforts would be well served to consider laptop security software as an affordable and easy to deploy method to protect their laptop computers in the event of loss or theft.

Mobile Workforces Pose More Security Risks

As businesses work towards efficiency, more employees work non-conventionally from home, at virtual offices and even when they’re “on the road.” While mobile workforces are great for maximizing productivity within your organization, these mobile workers can increase the chance that one of your laptop computers could be lost or stolen, especially if these employees are required to travel.

A recent web based study conducted by the Ponemon Institute that included 714 participants in the security/ IT field found that airports, hotels, rental cars, taxis and industry conferences were the most common place for laptop computers to come up missing.

31% of respondents said they didn’t know how many laptops were lost or stolen in the past year within their organization. Additionally, more than 49% of respondents say that their organizations experienced more than 10 lost or stolen laptops over the past year.

The study found many of those surveyed didn’t believe that any one person in their organization was responsible for securing laptop computers. 41% said they thought securing laptop computers was the responsibility of the business unit or departmental management.

Other Cybersecurity Risks Associated With Mobile Workforces

Even if your corporate issued laptop computer isn’t lost or stolen, allowing a mobile workforce to access the internet and Email presents it’s own set of issues as it relates to Cybersecurity. Internet threats such as Spam, viruses, phishing attempts and malicious websites can compromise the security of a laptop computer – and possibly your entire computer network.

Other concerns include personal use. Your employee shouldn’t be using your laptop to access websites that offer illegal downloads, P2P sharing, pornography or other potentially brand damaging websites.

How To Strengthen Cybersecurity Measures For Laptop Security

Businesses and Organizations can strengthen their security measures the following ways:

• Use Encryption. Encryption assures that information is kept secure and away from prying eyes using keys. This prevents unauthorized people from viewing Email and other documents stored on company issued laptops. Encryption should be used to protect large files and physical media such as USB drives, CD’s and DVD’s that are being used to store sensitive data.
• Use Web Content Filtering. Web content filtering allows IT managers to set specific rules about websites employees are allowed to visit on the company owned device. Additionally, it offers the protection of URL filtering so if a web domain is determined to have malware or contain other malicious code, your employee will be stopped from visiting the website and possibly compromising data.
• Use Cloud Based Email Security. Cloud based Email security uses a filtering process to remove threats such as spam, phishing attempts and viruses from arriving in your inbox. By removing these malignant messages remotely in the cloud, your corporation is saved from the headaches of virus removal, computer repair or hardware replacement.
• Use Laptop Security Software. Laptop security software is one of the best defenses in securing your company issued laptop computers. One quick software installation gives IT managers the ability to remotely lock down devices as soon as it’s reported lost or stolen, securing both the data on the machine and preventing anyone else from using the computer or reselling it on the black market. Laptop security software also assists in recovering the computer by using GPS, IP tracking and satellite imagery of the computers approximate location.

Loss or theft of a company issued laptop computer that isn’t protected with these key security solutions can pose multiple threats to your company. Let’s not forget that many newer laptops are equipped with much larger hard drives so these devices can store virtually unlimited amounts of sensitive data on clients, customers, patients or employees. If these files can be easily accessed , you could have a serious data breach on your hands.

If your business or organization would like to increase your Cybersecurity measures on laptop computers, we can help! Please request a quote on our lineup of laptop security software offerings or Sign Up for updates on our cloud security webinars.