Hybrid working has revolutionised the way businesses operate. It’s increased productivity, made collaboration easy, and has empowered employees by giving them flexibility and autonomy. Whilst these are all positives, especially from an employee perspective, there is a downside.

From a data security prospective it causes problems, specifically when employees access company data from multiple devices and multiple locations. Not only is there physically more devices and locations that cyber attackers can target, but old devices, devices which have been jail broken, or devices that aren’t updated all create weaknesses and access points for attacks.

The only way to shore things up is to have a centralised system which guarantees the security of devices, apps and identities within your office environment, as well as every other device and environment business data is accessed on.

Whilst this sounds time consuming and complex, thankfully, Microsoft have a single product to do just this: Microsoft Intune.

What is Microsoft Intune?

Intune is a service within Microsoft Business Premium that allows you to manage and secure your devices, applications, identities and documents from anywhere. It allows you to enrol, configure, update, monitor, and protect corporate and personal devices. You can also deploy and manage apps, control access to data, and enforce compliance policies across your organisation.

Intune allows you to:

• Enroll and configure devices, such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones
• Apply policies and settings to control access and functionality
• Deploy and update applications and software
• Protect data on devices and in transit
• Monitor and report on device health and compliance
• Wipe or lock devices remotely in case of loss or theft

Clear Overview and Central Management

On set up, Intune allows you to enrol your devices so that you get a clear overview of weak points within your system, you can see which devices need updating, and whether devices are secure enough to meet your organisation’s requirements. Once enrolled, you can manage devices remotely, so you won’t need to arduously apply settings and update devices manually and one by one. With Intune you can push policies out remotely en masse.

Customisable Security

Intune allows you to create different policies and profiles based on device type, user group, location, and compliance status. You can also use conditional access to grant or deny access to resources based on device health and user identity.

The level of security and what is and isn’t allowed is up to you. For example, if you’d like to achieve CyberEssentials+, Intune allows you to customise your policies based on the CyberEssentials+ requirements.

Works with all device and OS types

Intune works effectively with Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. And as it is a Microsoft product and an add-on licence to the Microsoft 365 Suite, it also works hand in hand with other Microsoft security services such as Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. This provides a unified and seamless experience making your business security more robust and easier to manage.

Preventative and reactive

Comprehensive security strategies are both preventive and reactive. Intune is exactly that. It is a preventative security measure – it helps you eliminate the security risks associated with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and hybrid working and ensures that you’re operating as safely as possible. But it’s also reactive. If something does go wrong – let’s say an employee loses their personal phone – if the device is managed in Intune, you can easily wipe all business data, keeping your business safe regardless of where the phone ends up.

The scope of Intune and what it can do is vast. It is a really powerful and flexible solution that can help you manage and secure your devices and applications in a hybrid work environment.

If you would like to learn more about Intune and how it can help your business, feel free to give us a call and our security consultants will be happy to help.

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