Mobile device management (MDM)

An enrolled device receives policy instead of suggestions: disk encryption on, screen lock required, operating system patched within a defined window, endpoint protection present — and, when a laptop leaves in the wrong backpack, a remote lock or wipe. Fleet tools like Jamf, Kandji, and Intune also hand security a live inventory: every device touching company data, who holds it, and whether it currently meets the baseline. Without that inventory, “all laptops are encrypted” is a hope, not a control.

MDM is one of the rare controls that documents itself. Auditors sampling device security want per-machine proof — encryption status, lock policy, OS version — and the console exports exactly that, retiring the old ritual of photographing settings screens laptop by laptop. GRC platforms integrate the console directly, so device checks flow into evidence collection continuously and a drifting machine opens a finding while there is still time to fix it. The real audit risk is the device nobody enrolled: it exists in payroll but not in the tested population.

The hard conversations concern personal devices. Fully managing an employee-owned phone is invasive and usually unnecessary; the workable pattern is a scoped work profile or app-level management that protects company data while leaving photos and messages alone, paired with an honest policy about what the company can and cannot see. Where to draw that line — and how to keep contractors and personal laptops from becoming the unmanaged edge of your audit — is the subject of BYOD Security.