Company Gadgets and Data Security: How Do You Prevent Misuse and Protect Information?

We have our marketing team, and we have provided them with the company laptop and mobile. So how can I avoid the misuse of the gadgets for data security? Also, are there any contract letters through which I can make our company gadgets safe?

You need to create a "Policy on Allotment of Company Assets" for your company. To design this policy, you may refer to my following two replies to past queries:

1. [Policy on employees who have company assets](https://www.citehr.com/336602-policy-employees-who-have-company-assets.html#post1544266)
2. [Ex-employee holding company's assets](https://www.citehr.com/375356-ex-employee-holding-companys-assets.html#post1725508)

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar

BYOD: Bring Your Own Device

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is effective when you have defined the VPN software and rules for privacy. What are the bare minimum measures that your IT team needs? How much do you need to invest in buying that firewall? I am certain you will draw the cost/benefit ratio to put it in context.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Regards

We also provide laptops to our teams as it is a part of the requirements. One good step to take is to move out of the Windows environment (all our laptops are now running Linux). It makes things very secure. Also, if you are not giving admin rights to the users, they cannot install anything on it other than what is already given by the IT team. No viruses or trojans, so no security risks. The current GUI (graphical interface) makes it almost like Windows except that the commands are in a different place (top, not bottom).

Protocol Controls for Data Security

If moving to Windows is not an option, then you need to put in a series of "Protocol Controls" either directly through the Zero Admin option or by putting in third-party software. VPNs are one of the common ones. Of course, you need antivirus. Blocking user rights to install software is one option, but then they also can't install any printers.

I do not know the IT Admin department you have. If you have one, they can do the necessary things (if they are capable). Else, you can take the help of an external managed services team. Some of them also have the ability to remotely work on the laptops.

If you need any help with this, send me a Personal Message, and we can talk on the phone. (We have done this in our office and for some of the clients)

Regards.

Hi, the information is quite relevant when it comes to laptops. However, if we need to provide smartphones to the international sales staff, what additional measures can we implement to prevent misuse and ensure that data is secure? Please provide your suggestions.

Thank you,
Shikha

Mobile Security Options

BlackBerry and Apple have good security suites that provide lockdown features for phones. You can restrict everything and also remotely delete all information in case the phone is stolen.