Mobile Device Security in Healthcare: 4 Tips to Improve Security for Ultra-Mobile Professionals

Keeping devices and data secure in hospitals and clinical environments can be difficult. Protecting data becomes even more difficult when healthcare workers leave the hospital. As clinicians and caregivers leave the controlled environment and enter patients’ homes, all the same concerns about data and device security remain—but without the protection of the healthcare environment.

To address this, healthcare workers using mobile devices should focus on two primary goals: protecting their devices and ensuring the integrity of the networks and applications they access.

Here are four tips to help you achieve this:

1. Require devices with built-in, advanced security systems

For ultra-mobile workers, devices need to be convenient portals to all their needs, and they need to be protected from loss, theft, and unauthorized use. Device security is key here. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) can provide freedom, but you can enforce greater security if you can control device choices even more tightly, either through a Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) or Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) approach.

Look for devices with Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) keystores, burned digital certificates to identify devices, secure boot technology that blocks device rollbacks and rooting, and firmware-based kernel checking. These can go a long way toward protecting your device—and, by extension, your apps and PPIs.

Integration and simplicity are key. That’s why Samsung’s Knox Suite has become so popular in healthcare for enterprise mobility management. It combines Samsung’s most popular Knox management solutions to create a simplified, comprehensive approach to managing devices wherever they are.

2. Secure your devices with advanced tools

With a secure foundation, layering software tools to enhance security becomes easier. Choose a powerful mobile device management (MDM) tool, also known as enterprise mobility management (EMM) or unified endpoint management (UEM), that can support any device you expect, and make sure MDM enrollment occurs before sending a device into the field.

What kind of MDM policies do healthcare workers need in the field?

To begin with, rigorous controls should be implemented in the following areas:

• App store selection (only authorized stores allowed)
• Blocked Apps Lists (includes all apps that cannot be installed)
• Software updates (require regular checks and updates of both operating systems and installed applications)
• Remote device cleaning capabilities
• Device Unlock Authentication Control

In addition, install next-generation endpoint security tools to detect and block malware and provide protection against host intrusions—similar to how traditional antivirus works on Windows. The value of next-generation protection on mobile devices becomes clear when you consider the types of malware threats these devices face. Because their operating systems and operating models are so different from those of traditional Windows and macOS computers, the techniques used to compromise them are different.

Additionally, consider using device partitioning to divide your mobile device into two isolated partitions: one for “work” and one for “home.” Partitioning can significantly reduce healthcare compliance issues for dual-use mobile devices, especially smartphones.

For example, with Android Enterprise, a work profile lets healthcare IT managers create a truly isolated environment on an Android smartphone or tablet. A work profile can only run approved “work” apps, and personally downloaded apps aren’t even visible when the work profile is unlocked. A work profile can have its own VPN, encrypted storage, or even its own isolated vault.

Using a well-secured, split device can provide better security and a more convenient workflow than a situation where the clinician has to juggle multiple devices without mixing things up or losing one. Using a mobile device becomes intuitive, not intrusive.

3. Use advanced authentication

Traditional two-factor authentication is often a source of frustration for healthcare teams. Managing tokens or using fingerprint readers can be impractical because healthcare users often wear gloves. Consider devices that provide contactless biometric authentication, such as facial recognition capabilities built into Samsung mobile devices and tablets.

Biometrics simplify device unlocking and can be used to authenticate apps, providing a higher level of security than simple passwords. At the same time, it minimizes vendor friction. Standards like FIDO help extend biometrics from device to app without using easily stolen passwords.

Faster authentication is also key to simplifying end-user lives. Too often, security features add complexity, frustrating clinicians and other providers. Mobile devices must improve productivity and patient care. By integrating mobile and wearable devices into everyday workflows, healthcare providers can gain easier access to real-time patient data and essential communication channels without disrupting their current demanding workloads, said Cherry Drulis, a nurse and director of B2B healthcare mobile services at Samsung.

4. Go Zero-Trust

When a healthcare worker is in the field, it’s hard to know what type of network they’ll be using. The most common access point at home is an unsecured Wi-Fi network. With so many untrusted and potentially malicious networks in the field, there’s only one logical choice: trust nothing.

The traditional answer to the problem of insecure networks would be to build a VPN tunnel and encrypt every bit of traffic leaving the mobile device, even basic internet traffic. This is still an option for complex healthcare IT application environments.

But there is an alternative. A more modern approach moves network security away from the “crisp crust with a chewy middle” architecture of the 1990s. Zero Trust removes the implicit trust that is typically afforded to office or corporate networks. If you adopt Zero Trust, you don’t have to build complex VPN infrastructures for mobile devices. Of course, you still need to make sure that all application traffic is encrypted, usually by adding a TLS/SSL layer if it isn’t already there.

One of the core ideas of Zero Trust is that access to apps and services is conditional—not just authentication, but also the state of the device, where you are, and even the time of day. Security enforcement systems can check the state of the device using an installed MDM client and define access controls using tools like Samsung Knox Attestation. In addition, there are Zero Trust access solutions ready for Samsung mobile devices, such as Cisco’s Zero Trust Access client. With these types of solutions, Galaxy users benefit from increased protection without the burden of security steps.

Mobile Device Security in Healthcare: Keep It Safe and Simple

As breach after breach has shown, devices and networks remain a constant avenue for data loss. The average cost of a healthcare data breach in 2023 was estimated at $11 million. And that doesn’t include the loss of patient trust and other valuable intangibles. It doesn’t have to be that way.

As mobile healthcare workers hit the road, focusing on a few basic security strategies, such as biometric authentication, Zero Trust, and secure hardware and software, can help protect critical data and applications. By seamlessly integrating these strategies, you not only protect data, but also minimize physician burnout, streamline communication, and free up healthcare workers to focus on patient care instead of IT.

Look at this free webinar on how to manage employee devices with Samsung Knox and Zero Trust. Beyond patient rooms, mobile devices can also improve clinical communication, as explained in this free, comprehensive guide.