Keep your staff WiFi wise this summer

With many staff taking their various devices on holiday this summer, the chances of finding an insecure WiFi hotspot in a hotel lobby or airport are increased. These 3 simple guidelines could help keep your business telecoms system safe and secure:

Make sure all corporate apps use encrypted communications. A hastily launched or upgraded app developed internally or by a third party on behalf of your company may not use encryption at all times. There are products available to monitor unencrypted communications from wireless devices. This will help to identify potential security issues.

Use cellular data whenever possible for work related communications. The big advantage of cellular radio networks over Wi-Fi is that all traffic over the radio interface is encrypted. In addition, it is very difficult to fool a device into connecting to rogue infrastructure. While in the past roaming data cost and network speed would have been a concern, however, this is less of an issue now as costs have fallen and 3G or 4G is readily available. Typically business use is relatively low bandwidth, particularly when compared to nonbusiness use like video streaming for social media and entertainment apps.3. Alert users to the distinction between trusted and untrusted wireless networks.

Use trusted networks. This includes the corporate WLAN, the cellular network and, generally, staff’s home Wi-Fi. Everything else should be considered as untrusted and not suitable for business use. Employees need to be aware that their privacy and security, and that of their employer, are compromised when they use these networks outside the safe zone.

Encryption remains the bedrock of keeping your data secure but the second line of defense is using networks whose integrity you can rely on.