How to Keep BYOD from Impacting Security

Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, is a common approach for businesses that want to take advantage of mobile technology to kickstart productivity. Instead of supplying each individual employee with company-owned devices, businesses allow employees to use their own devices for work-related purposes. While this is great on the budget, it’s only really effective (and safe) if the employee prioritizes security on their devices; otherwise, it’s a liability.

The Concept of Threat Surface Level

BYOD is great for improving productivity, but it comes at the cost of greater security risks associated with increasing the threat surface level of your business.

Simply put, the more devices you have on your network, and the more devices that have access to your company’s resources, the greater the odds of something bad happening to them. It doesn’t matter what kind of devices they are; even a smartwatch could pose a risk to your business, if it’s connected to the Internet and it has access to your network. This is why BYOD is only truly effective as an operations model if you have policies and procedures in place to secure these devices.

A sound BYOD strategy is the key to making the most of employee-owned devices so you can carry out operations without fear.

Access Control Challenges

Half the battle of BYOD is access control, meaning who has access to what information and on what devices.

We’ll say right now that no employee, not even upper management or executives, should have access to everything. Case in point: sensitive information managed by your human resources team, like Social Security numbers. The fewer people who have access to sensitive information, the better the odds that data will remain secure.

Smart use of access control features that limit access based on job role and duties performed will go a long way toward protecting your business (and its assets).

The Key Components of a BYOD Policy

There are, of course, other components to a BYOD policy, including blacklisting/whitelisting apps and remote wiping.

When you blacklist and whitelist apps, you’re telling employees that these are tools approved for work purposes (and which ones aren’t). This prevents them from using apps that IT hasn’t approved, or those that could have malicious intentions. Remote wiping lets you wipe data on any stolen or compromised devices, meaning that even under the worst circumstances, you have one last failsafe to protect your business.

White Mountain IT Services can help you implement any of the above tools to keep your business and its mobile devices secure. Learn more by calling us today at (603) 889-0800.

White Mountain IT

Related Posts

Knowing, and Planning For, Your Organization’s Compliance Burden

Despite what detractors say, regulations are in place for good reason. They typically protect individuals from organizational malfeasance. Many of these regulations are actual laws passed by a governing body and cover the entire spectrum of the issue, not just the data involved. The ones that have data protection regulations written into them mostly deal with the handling and protection of sensiti...

You May Not Think You’re Popular, but Your Data Certainly Is

Data is extremely important in the way that most businesses conduct themselves. This results in other people wanting that information, too. Today’s blog will look at how seemingly everyone online is out for your data.  Businesses Want Your Data… Companies and hackers are both intensely interested in acquiring your personal data, albeit for vastly different reasons.  Companies collec...

Cybercriminals Can Use AI to Their Advantage, Too… Watch Out for Prompt Hacking Attacks

Did you know that during World War II, Allied codebreakers didn't just crack the German Enigma code with pure math? They also used clever tricks, like baiting the Germans into sending predictable messages, to expose the machine's inner workings. History proves this approach worked then, and (unfortunately) continues to work now. This art of manipulating a system to reveal its secrets has found a ...

Protecting Your Identity and Privacy on Social Media in 2024

Social media is constantly evolving, and if the big social networks had it their way, it would be the only place people go when they log onto the Internet. Whether you have strong feelings for or against social media, or perhaps you are indifferent, it’s important to understand how to protect yourself when using social media. What are the Risks of Using Social Media? For many, social media has...