Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a strategy that has become quite popular amongst employees and employers alike. The employee gets to use a device they’re familiar with, and the employer saves money. Unfortunately, many businesses underestimate the security risks posed by unmanaged BYOD deployments, which can lead to severe legal issues.
Let’s talk about these risks and why they pop up in the first place.
The Three Problems that Leave Employee Devices Insecure
The Problem: You Have Zero Control Over an Employee’s Device
The thing about a team member’s personal device is that it is their personal device. They own it. Your business doesn’t. Therefore, you really don’t have any control over how they handle it.
You have no say over whether their device has a passcode protecting it or whether it is kept sufficiently up to date. You have no control over which apps are installed on the device, meaning that your team member or their family could have installed something malicious without realizing it. Once a device connects to your network, any threats it carries are free to run wild.
To securely enable BYOD, you need to set certain conditions, such as the security measures a device has enabled.
The Problem: You and an Employee (And Their Device) Part Ways
Whether your team member quits or you have to let them go, they must have none of your business’ data when they leave. This brings us back to the initial problem: the lack of control you have over their devices. You really have no idea what they might have—like client lists, financial details, and strategic plans—next to photos of their pets and their personal contacts.
So, what can you do? You can’t legally reset their device in its entirety, but they can’t leave with any valuable information. Too many businesses simply hope for the best, assuming the former employee will delete this data.
You need to retain control over your data, regardless of how it is accessed or by whom, especially when BYOD is a factor.
The Problem: Your Data is Mixed in With Your Employee’s Personal Stuff
We’ve noted that an employee’s device is their property and contains their personal data. If your business’ data is added to the pile, there’s suddenly the very real possibility that your data may be leaked as a result of this data co-mingling.
For instance, what if the contract you meant to send to Bob, your client, is accidentally sent to Bob, your neighbor, or Bob, your brother-in-law? What if your latest business schematics are hanging out in an employee’s downloads folder with all their vacation photos? It’s a data breach waiting to happen, that’s what. Regulatory bodies don’t care if a data breach was an accident; they just care that data has been breached… much like your clients will.
Without a means to properly separate personal from professional data, your data could be exposed in a variety of circumstances (many accidental).
Mobile Device Management Solves These Problems
By implementing mobile device management, you can essentially eliminate these concerns with a single tool, provided you pair it with the right policy.
Here’s how it works:
- Your BYOD policy outlines the terms: the signing employee agrees that, in exchange for using a personal device, the business can secure the company data on it—no more, no less.
- A mobile device management tool is installed on the device, creating an encrypted container. This allows users to have work profiles that keep personal and professional information separate.
- This container stores all company resources and applications, safely separated from personal data.
- Should that employee leave your company, it is a simple matter to delete the container, fully divesting the device from the business.
Simple, elegant, and effective.
Trust Us to Help You Set Up a Secure BYOD Strategy!
BYOD is a hugely effective way to boost your business’ operational efficiency, but only if you go about it with a plan in place to ensure that taking advantage of it doesn’t compromise your security. Both are essential, and with Bring Your Own Device supplemented by mobile device management, both are attainable… especially with our help!
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