Why Securing Business Internal Mobile Apps Is Accelerating In 2022
Enterprises are flourishing worldwide and are finding ways to maximize productivity. In today’s digital age, having realized the benefits of mobile applications, almost every business is leveraging them to improve their relationship with consumers by enhancing their shopping experience.
So, what exactly are customer apps? Apps for customers are mobile applications specifically designed for customers according to their unique demands. In commercial business, customer apps are developed to strengthen the relationship with consumers, and consequently, get them to purchase more. To achieve that, customer apps feature functions that make the shopping experience more convenient and seamless.
What Are Employee Apps?
An employee application is a platform for internal communication and is available to all employees, generally on both personal and company devices. The Covid-19 has made the value of internal communication higher than ever before. Efficient communication is a bond that connects people, builds a sense of community, and holds enterprises together. When supported by advanced technology, employee apps can deliver significant organizational and operational advantages to businesses.
Why Businesses Need Employee Apps?
An employee app not only removes communication’s access barrier, but certain functions like push notifications help to activate dispersed employees better than conventional employee communication platforms.
Let’s look at the major benefits of employee apps to businesses.
1. It Can Reach Deskless And Frontline Employees
Several sectors like retail, manufacturing, leisure, construction, travel, transport, and logistics have a large proportion of workers who are considered to be deskless, blue-collar frontline, or field employees. Essentially, many of them don’t have corporate email addresses or digital identities. An employee app is an effective way to communicate with this significant demographic.
2. It Supports Crisis Communication
The pandemic has revealed the necessity of crisis communication that the entire workforce can reach promptly. An employee app is the best way to reach the whole workforce in real-time to send authoritative communications to keep people informed.
3. It Helps Perform Tasks That Require Being Off-Site
Another benefit of the employee app is that it helps you submit or view information for processes when you’re out in the field or off-site. For instance, you may need to submit product information when inspecting a site or send an update about the meeting’s outcome. But, again, only an employee app will help you perform such tasks when you’re off-site.
4. Minimize Risks
When employees can’t access information or communicate with their mobile devices, inevitably, they turn to alternative solutions. Using authorized employee apps can protect the organization against privacy and security risks.
5. It’s More Convenient And Quick
An employee app is effective in information consumption, such as quickly reading updates or scanning messages. You don’t have to authenticate into the intranet and save significant time. Moreover, an employee app maximizes productivity by encouraging shorter and more focused communications.
Now that we’ve understood why employee apps are necessary for every business, we’ve assembled a list of essential features that every business owner must consider before selecting an employee app.
Must-have Features Of An Employee App
Customizable To Meet Company Demands
A cookie-cutter approach is not sufficient to set up an employee app. Companies have unique cultures and requirements, and employee apps must reflect what’s unique, from the brand logo to the color theme to appear on the screen.
Chat Function
It’s a must-have feature of an employee app because it allows employees to share information and connect efficiently. In addition, employees can view the chat conversations later for clarity about what was discussed.
Push Notifications
Push notifications can be used for multiple purposes, such as spreading updated safety guidelines, urgent company news, or broadcasting instructions to employees if any hazardous event occurs.
Content Sharing
When relevant news and company information is available to employees, the managers can analyze how the work has been done throughout the day. Furthermore, team members working on a similar project can access and share documents on a single platform.
Employee Surveys
The company can track employee experience by using employee surveys via mobile apps to collect their opinions about its new policies and much more. Ideally, employees feel comfortable sharing genuine opinions with executives and managers. Employee apps are the best way to conduct online surveys since it stays confidential.
How To Secure Employee Apps
1. Harden The Mobile Device Management
Employee app security begins with the mobile device. The most efficient way to manage mobile devices is to utilize EMM (Enterprise Mobile Management) solution. Moreover, encourage IT teams to follow national standards such as CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System), ioXt (Internet of Secure Things Alliance), OWASP top mobile threats, etc., to ensure the security of users’ and company data.
2. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication
Always implement MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) for login prompts. The additional authentication factors can include PIN (Personal Identification Number), OTP (One-Time Password), and validation links sent to the email address and phone number. In addition, biometric information from the face, fingerprint, or voice recognition could also be used for verification purposes.
3. Enforce Strong Password Policies
Employees’ username and password required to open up the employee app are the first defense line against cybercriminals. However, attackers can easily brute force their way into the application by guessing the employees’ passwords. Therefore, enforce strong password policies, including numbers, letters, special characters, using both uppercase and lowercase letters, etc. These rules ensure a better way of protecting enterprise employee apps.
4. Prepare Proactively Against Device Theft
Getting a device stolen or losing it is a widespread occurrence and can be a severe issue. The best way to prepare against device theft is to install a feature within the application that allows you to control the mobile device from the central computer remotely. This way, if your employee ever loses the device, you can log off and even completely wipe the data.
5. Restrict Employees From Device Rooting
Rooting or jailbreaking has become a new trend because of its benefits to mobile users. However, rooting a device compromise the device’s security. Therefore, rooted devices are most susceptible and vulnerable to being compromised. This can become a liability to the enterprise employee app’s security. Therefore, restrict employees from device rooting.
6. Encrypt The App’s Source Code
When cybercriminals gain access to the enterprise mobile app, they always first decipher the source code to create a convincing imitation of the application. Attackers then share that app publically and attach viruses or malware to ruin your reputation through data leaks from acquiring information in the falsified app. Thus, it’s advisable to encrypt the app’s source code by utilizing the latest encryption methods such as AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), TDEA (Triple Data Encryption Algorithm), IDEA (International Data Encryption Algorithm), and RSA (Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman) security.
7. Restrict Access To Confidential Information
Even after investing money, effort, and time educating the employees, there will still be few individuals who’ll not follow the policies you have set. In such a scenario, you can restrict access to confidential information to minimize the damage. Instead of giving employees access to the enterprise’s sensitive information, provide minimal crucial data relevant to the employee’s job.
