Device security guidance
Page 1 of 38
Securing your devices is an essential part of guarding your organisation against a variety of threats which herald primarily from the internet.
How exactly should you go about securing these devices, which include mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and even other connected devices? When you begin to think about this problem a number of questions come to mind:
- Which devices should you buy?
- How should you configure these devices?
- What security software should you load onto them?
NCSC Device Guides
To help you secure your devices, the NCSC has answered these questions, and more. Our Device Guides cover the full range of concerns from choosing and purchasing devices to the advice you should give to end users.
General audience
These guides are aimed primarily at business users, with a focus on those deploying or managing large IT estates. However, the advice holds good for all users, and all operating systems. So if you only have a few devices to look after this guidance can still be very useful.
IT admins or managers
If you're responsible for securing mobile devices within a small business or large organisation, there's also more things to think about. We have produced a number of device guides tailored to the size of your organisations to use when setting up their devices. You can use these to help you design your network, configure device policies, and give your users clear and actionable advice.
If you're looking for guidance on how to secure devices used for administration, our Secure system administration has advice on this - including the use of PAWs (Privileged Access Workstations).
Devices and platforms
Our guides cover how you should secure a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. They have been split into specific topics to help you solve particular problems you might be facing.
We also have specific guides for the most common device types being used in the UK today: Android, Chrome OS, iOS (including iPadOS), macOS and Windows. The NCSC's recommended configurations for these platforms can be found in our GitHub repository.
For individuals, we suggest taking a look at CyberAware, which includes specific guidance about how to look after your personal smartphones, tablets and PCs.
Case studies
If you're looking for some ideas on how to make small, tangible improvements in your network security, the NCSC has worked with several organisations across the UK to deploy devices securely.
We have jointly published several case studies which might give you some ideas about improvements to make within your own organisation.
