The BYOD Security Risk
Introduction
The introduction of mobile devices in the workplace has been on the rise and there is no denying that these devices are transforming how companies do business. This has introduced the BYOD or Bring Your Own Device model in the workplace and its becoming more popular every day. BYOD is a policy that accepts employees bringing personally owned mobile devices to their workplace and using them to access company data such as email, file servers and databases as well as their personal applications and data. But as data transmissions increase with these devices so does the chances of them being hacked and the burden of successfully managing the mobile devices is laid upon the IT departments. One of the
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Let’s look at this survey where 4,000 employees in a verity of industries across 16 countries were surveyed and half of them use their mobile devices for work. CIO’s and IT departments want to embrace the BYOD model to help accomplish their company’s mission but they want to do it securely. At this point the secret is out BYOD is a real issue and IT departments need to strategize now for an effective enterprise mobility management solution. It’s time to ignore the standard approved device list, locking down corporate apps, and enforcing mobile device policy. The risk of a CIO or IT department failing to implement a suitable solution for their mobile device network is very real. It’s time to explore new ideas to effectively manage a mobile device network via the Enterprise Mobility platform. The invasion of mobile device’s into the workplace is going to happen weather industry leaders want them to or not, and smarter companies are looking to deploy Enterprise Mobility strategies before they are overrun.
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Adapting security and management for the new generation of mobile devices is turning out to be a huge corporate challenge. The Company Thomson Reuters like many companies is struggling to find which enterprise mobility management and security systems for their mobile device network consisting of
The CSO or CIO should establish policies as to what data is allowed to be stored on mobile devices, what level of protection is required, and what access to internal systems various mobile devices can have. Regularly, these policies are part of the overall data management and access management policies. The network administrator and IT manager usually decide on which tools to use to ensure that password, virtual private network, access control, and malware protection requirements are followed. They may also decide on which types of mobile devices are authorized for use with company data and services. Managers and users are responsible for following these policies. It is tempting for employees to use personal devices with forbidden data and
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is when an employee uses one or more personal computing devices for business purposes. It can include personal computers, laptops, tablets, USB or flash drives, mobile phones and even online computing services such as Dropbox or Google Drive. The history of BYOD stems from the technological advances of the past 25 years, starting with employees accessing corporate networks from their home computers via dial-up modems in the late 1980’s and virtual private networks starting in the early 1990’s, continuing through the massive increase in mobile phones and access to corporate email via Blackberry type devices and culminating in the current state of being connected all the time via tablets
Today’s technology-based society is plagued with an over abundance of mobile devices. These devices now control our homes, our transportation, and our
Best defined, a bring-your-own device (BYOD) system is a network that is specifically designed for individuals to connect their own devices for use within the system (source). For example, X-Rocket may allow certain employees the luxury of using their own laptop or tablet computer for work-related purposes, rather than using a company device. While there are many advantages to utilizing a BYOD system, such as low-costs and flexibility, advanced security methods are required to ensure safe networking and data access. Current BYOD security issues include unknown third-party access, data tracking challenges, data leakage, and non-compliance with networking safety procedures (source). Notably, the Cobb County school district of Marietta, Georgia,
Human factors influence polices in the BYOD practice in the workplace because for the most part employees are comfortable and prefer using their own devices compared to company issued devices as they can often multitask between personal and business access. The use of mobile devices comes with the consequences of the device being stolen, lost and exposed to threats. The possibility of these devices falling in the wrong hands or stranger not authorized access to data could result to harmful software application being uploaded or downloaded which could infect the device and compromise the network.
The advantages of allowing employees to use their personal smartphones for work are that it would allow companies to enjoy all of the same benefits of a mobile workforce without spending their own money on unnecessary devices and mobile initiatives. Empowering employees to choose the best device to get their work done, including personally-owned laptops as well as smartphones and tablets, will allow employees to become more mobile and productive. The disadvantages of allowing employees to use their personal smartphones for work are that employees work with more than one type of mobile device and operating system. A significantly large amount of IT resources would have to be dedicated to managing and maintaining a large number of devices in an organization. This presents difficulties for companies to provide
A stolen or lost laptop or mobile device can result in a very unfortunate situation depending on what that device contained, especially if the device contains customer information. To make sure this doesn’t happen, protecting the customers’ data when transporting it anyplace on a portable device by encrypting all the data that remains in it. There is always a potentiality threat of an inside employee. However, to help prevent this, an organization should arrange all the crucial functions and responsibilities amongst employees within the organization. This will limit the possibility of an individual committing fraud without the help of other employees. Lastly, organizations should become aware of phishing. Phishing consists of cyber criminals hacking and hijacking corporate social media accounts or creating confusingly similar nicknames, misleading companies or individuals. This could cause employees or consumers to reveal sensitive information because they believe they are communicating with the “official”
Employee satisfaction and increased productivity are some of the reasons most organizations are accepting the BYOD policy in the workplace. Many concerns exist from a security standpoint when the BYOD program is implemented in my organization
If an organisation allows employees to use personal devices for work, a BYOD policy for the use of such devices can make sure that all personnel are given notification of both the policy’s guidelines and the consequences for violating those guidelines.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is referred to it by many names: bring your own danger, bring your own disaster, bring your own detonator, but whatever the name, it is becoming more and more commonplace in all sectors across the world. What used to be unthinkable, using one’s own personal mobile device or smartphone for work is now emerging as one of the biggest technology trends of this decade. The idea of using a personal device at work developed when many executives got their first Blackberries and iPhones back in the mid-2000’s and wanted access to corporate resources from these devices such as email and the corporate intranet. Since then, BYOD has transitioned from a trend to a major revolution of enterprise Information Technology (IT)
At the same time, there’s been a dramatic move in consumer conduct with the introduction of smart devices like the iPhone, iPad and Android-based devices. More and more users are adopting and willingly using these non-sanctioned smart devices in their workplace to access corporate resources, a behavior that has indirectly benefited the businesses in many ways. As business leaders recognize the value of individually owned devices in the workplace, they are putting increasing pressure on IT to permit the usage of these devices to access inner corporate resources.
In today society, Information Technology (IT) managers are facing their fears of different cyber security vulnerabilities faced by different network. The vulnerabilities being either unknown or known makes it challenging for an Information Technology manager to keep the network secure. Organizations prefer to deal with wireless network because of what it can offer. According to Cisco, wireless networks are a powerful tool for boosting productivity and encouraging information sharing. With untethered access to documents, emails, applications and other network resources, employees can roam where they need to and have constant access to the tools required to do their jobs (Five Reasons to Go Wireless).
With the rapid growth of mobile computing, mobile device become a necessary tool in our daily life. Without mobile device our life quality, efficiency will totally decrease. Users just need to connect to network and gather information they want in a few second. Although mobile devices bring us convenient, mobile devices contain large amount of personal data, including emails, photos, contact data, financial, and medical information, privacy issue [1] occur due to users unknowingly expose their privacy through mobile application, camera, network etc. and their use poses a serious threat to both personal and corporate security. It greatly extending the reach of technology and raising concerns that prevailing traditions of privacy may be challenged.
For mid-sized businesses, quick and secure access to real-time business information via mobile devices will become an enabler for modern commerce
Creating a robust mobile device policy is necessary to protect companies. For example, the policy must address securing company data and address legal liability (Choilawala, 2014). Therefore, it is critical to involve multiple departments, such as Information Technology (IT), Human Resources (HR), and Security, in building and developing the policy. Involving multiple departments provides various perspective to ensure business needs and goals are aligned. Common organization goals relate to increasing workforce size and enhancing employee productivity (Meyer, 2016).