If you manage enterprise mobility, you know how important it is to measure and improve your EMM security performance. But how do you know if you are doing well compared to your peers and best practices? In this article, we will show you how to benchmark EMM security metrics against industry standards and use them to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.
EMM security metrics are quantitative indicators that reflect the effectiveness of your EMM policies, processes, and tools in protecting your mobile devices, data, and applications. They can help you monitor, evaluate, and report on your EMM security posture and performance. For instance, device compliance rate measures the percentage of devices that meet your security requirements and policies. Device encryption rate gauges the percentage of devices that have encryption enabled. Device patching rate indicates the percentage of devices that have the latest security updates installed. Data breach rate counts the number of data breaches or incidents involving mobile devices per year. Lastly, data loss prevention rate records the percentage of data transfers that are blocked or alerted by your DLP solution.
EMM security metrics encompass various aspects of mobile device security within an organization. Measure the percentage of devices that adhere to the organization's security policies. Assess the proportion of mobile devices with encrypted data to protect sensitive information in case of device loss or theft. Evaluate the security of mobile applications, including the presence of vulnerabilities and adherence to security best practices. Measure the time it takes to detect and respond to security incidents on mobile devices. Evaluate the effectiveness of authentication mechanisms in place for mobile devices. Assess the ability to detect and mitigate mobile-specific threats, such as malware and phishing attacks.
EMM security metrics play a crucial role in evaluating the effectiveness of an organization's EMM strategy. By tracking these metrics, organizations can identify areas for improvement, optimize their EMM policies and procedures, and enhance overall mobile device security. Consider a financial institution that implements a comprehensive EMM strategy. They monitor key metrics such as device compliance rate, device encryption rate, and data breach rate to assess the effectiveness of their EMM program. By maintaining high compliance and encryption rates and a low data breach rate, the organization demonstrates a strong commitment to safeguarding sensitive financial data.
Para comparar as métricas de seguran?a do EMM com os padr?es do setor, é essencial adotar uma abordagem sistemática. Comece definindo KPIs alinhados aos objetivos de seguran?a, como taxas de conformidade, detec??o de amea?as móveis e tempo médio de resposta a incidentes. Compare esses KPIs com benchmarks da indústria, como relatórios de organiza??es de pesquisa e conformidade com regulamenta??es específicas do setor. Realize avalia??es periódicas para garantir a conformidade contínua e ajuste as métricas conforme as mudan?as nas amea?as e nas melhores práticas da indústria, assegurando um nível eficaz de seguran?a móvel.
Fazer a governan?a de seguran?a dispositivos móveis é um imenso desafio, na verdade manter um inventário apurado já n?o é uma das tarefas mais triviais. Um KPI importante que muitas vezes é esquecido que é a taxa de cobertura e acuracidade do seu inventário, ou seja o quanto meu inventário cobre dos dispositivos e quanto ele está preciso. Dito isto métricas técnicas é possível obter por ferramentas e telemetria, porém ter políticas e objetivos bem definidos demonstram maturidade. Partindo do principio que esses requisitos est?o atendidos, ter fontes confiáveis de relatório e pesquisas confiáveis confiando plenamente em suas métricas, esses benchmarking devem ser acompanhados de perto pelas área de seguran?a e negócios da organiza??o.
Benchmarking EMM security metrics involves comparing your metrics with those of other organizations or industry standards. Doing so can help you gain an understanding of your current EMM security maturity and performance level, identify your strengths and weaknesses in EMM security, set achievable EMM security goals, track your progress over time, and demonstrate the value and ROI of your EMM security to stakeholders.
Benchmarking EMM security metrics is essential for organizations to gain a comprehensive understanding of their EMM security posture, identify areas for improvement, and benchmark their efforts against industry standards. By continuously benchmarking and refining their EMM strategy, organizations can ensure that their mobile devices are adequately protected and that sensitive data remains secure. A large retail chain utilizes EMM to manage a vast fleet of mobile devices used by employees. They benchmark their EMM metrics against industry standards and discover that their device compliance rate falls below the industry average. This information prompts them to review their EMM policy enforcement and take steps to improve device compliance.
Not just for EMM, but any solutions that you have within your organization should be tested and validated. As part of your Information Security Management System (ISMS), you need to test effectiveness of the program and validating how effective your solutions are, is an essential part of the program. One way to validate your EMM is reviewing number of detections, how many false-positives tool detected and if there was any incidents that EMM was not capable to prevent. I always like to check the tool based on market analysis (e.g.: Gartner and Info-Tech), making an assessment of investments, new technologies, etc.
When seeking EMM security benchmarks, there are various sources to choose from depending on your needs and availability. Industry reports and surveys, such as the Verizon Mobile Security Index or the Ponemon Institute Cost of a Data Breach Report, can provide insights and statistics on EMM security trends, challenges, and best practices across various sectors and regions. Additionally, peer groups and networks, like the Enterprise Mobility Exchange or the MobileIron Community, offer forums to exchange EMM security information and experiences with other professionals and organizations. Self-assessment tools and frameworks, such as the NIST Mobile Device Security Framework or the CIS Controls for Mobile Devices, are also available to help assess your EMM security maturity and performance based on predefined criteria and standards.
Leveraging multiple sources of EMM security benchmarks provides a holistic view of your organization's EMM security posture and helps you identify areas for improvement. By comparing your metrics to industry standards, peer practices, and self-assessment results, you can effectively benchmark your EMM security program and ensure that your mobile devices and data remain protected.
One analysis that I like to do is checking within private research organizations such as Gartner and InfoTech. Both are paid, but some vendors like to publish their reviews (usually when are very positive, of course) From Gartner, I like to review the magic quadrants as it makes an assessment on what each tool within the category is delivering, investments and new capabilities. From InfoTech, I like to make more personalized assessments on our capabilities, scorecards and related. This one is more personalized as they assess the solution based on our current deployment and make suggestions, even comparing with other solutions available in the market
Once you have identified the relevant EMM security benchmarks for your organization, you can use them to measure and improve your EMM security performance. You need to collect and analyze data from various sources such as your EMM platform, MDM solution, SIEM system, and incident response team. This data should be accurate, consistent, and timely. Compare and evaluate your EMM security metrics with the benchmarks to identify gaps and discrepancies. Highlight areas where you are performing better than the benchmarks and understand the factors driving them. Plan and implement EMM security improvements based on the comparison and evaluation results. Prioritize areas that need the most attention and improvement, define actions and resources needed to achieve them, maintain areas where you are performing well, and replicate best practices.
Leveraging EMM security benchmarks empowers organizations to identify areas for improvement, prioritize corrective actions, and implement data-driven strategies to enhance their EMM security posture and protect sensitive data. By adopting a continuous benchmarking and improvement approach, organizations can safeguard their mobile devices and maintain a strong defense against evolving security threats.
EMM security benchmarks are not static or fixed and can change due to new technologies, threats, regulations, and customer expectations. Therefore, you need to review and update your EMM security benchmarks regularly. This can be done by monitoring and researching EMM security trends and developments, revisiting and revising your EMM security goals and targets in line with business objectives and customer needs, and re-evaluating and re-adjusting your EMM security metrics and benchmarks based on feedback and results from your EMM security data. It is important to ensure that your metrics and benchmarks are valid, reliable, comparable, and reflective of your current EMM security performance and potential.
A proactive approach to benchmarking ensures that EMM security strategies remain aligned with the latest security challenges and customer expectations. By continuously reviewing and updating benchmarks, organizations can adapt their EMM security posture to safeguard their mobile devices, sensitive data, and overall business operations.