How to BYOD: Part 2 Issues

Part 2: The issues inherent with BYOD

IT departments all have a collaborative fear of having their security measures bypassed and their system hacked. It’s a nightmare to prevent and in some cases begins with a simple unfortunate accident from one of their employees. The employee may have left their laptop in a taxi, downloaded content from a malicious QR code, installed an untrusted third party application, or neglected to password protect their device.  No matter the case, there are numerous issues with BYOD.

What if you've lost your company’s network integrated smartphone. Best case scenario, nothing happens. Worst case scenario is that it has fallen into the hands of someone dishonest and they now have access to your corporate information. Statistically one in three BYOD users do not worry about password protection that would provide a first defense against invaders. The thief has now turned off your location services, downloaded your corporate info and taken your personal information (contacts, calendar, notes, CC info).

Tablets and laptops may have better security features but they are still vulnerable. You can get clever spam mail or a link from a friend directing you directing to malware. Your company laptop now has a secret beneath its surface called malware (or a virus) and because of its secret existence; you go ahead sending and receiving private corporate information. All the while, your packets are being copied and shared to hackers and scammers alike. Instead of being on your secured network at corporate headquarters, your device is independently distributing excel sheets with company.

Organizations also have no control over the security of external networks used by your personal devices. Broadband, WiFi and cellular networks are susceptible to eavesdropping and may compromise transmitted information.

If your IT department has implemented a BYOD policy they may not be realizing the affects it has on themselves. Now, instead of dealing with just the company owned issues, they are doubling their work. It could be said that its your phone so handle it yourself but having the device integrated on your company network ties an assumed responsibility to IT to find a solution. Employees will not understand the difference between a network, software, or hardware issue and will hound the IT department until its fixed. IT has enough issues already, do we really need to double or triple their efforts?

When you are asking to use your personal device for work purposes, I urge you to consider all the possible implications it will have. You may not like the results.