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Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

  • BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) refers to business policy that allows employees to use their own computing devices, like smart phones  and laptops  to connect to  the corporate network to access information and application. The BYOD has

 

made work flexible, empowering employees to be mobile and giving them the  right to work beyond their required hours.

 

Advantages of BYOD

  • Happy Employees: Employees love to use their own devices when at work. This also reduces the number of devices an employee has to carry;  otherwise  he  would be carrying his personal as well as organization provided devices.
  • Lower IT budgets: The employees could involve financial savings to the organization since employees would be using the devices they already possess, thus reducing the outlay of the organization in providing devices to them.
  • IT reduces support requirement: IT department does not have to  provide  end user support and maintenance for all these devices resulting in cost savings.
  • Early adoption of new Technologies: Employees are generally proactive in adoption of new technologies that result in enhanced productivity of employees leading to overall growth of business.
  • Increased employee efficiency: The efficiency of employees is more when the employee works on his/her own device. In an organization provided devices, employees have to learn and there is a learning curve involved in it.

 

Emerging BYOD Threats

  • Network Risks ‘Lack of Device Visibility’: When company-owned devices are not used by all employees within an organization, the IT team is unaware about the number of devices being connected to the network.  For example, if a  virus hits  the network and all the devices connected to the network need be scanned, it is probable that some of the devices would miss out on this routine scan operation.
  • Device Risks ‘Loss of Devices’: A lost or stolen device can result in financial and reputational lossto an organization as the device may hold sensitive information.
  • Application Risks ‘Application Viruses and Malware’: A majority of employees’ phones and smart devices are connected to the corporate network. Organizations are not clear in deciding that ‘who is responsible for device security- the organization or the user’.
  • Implementation Risks ‘Weak BYOD Policy’: The effective implementation of the BYOD program should not only cover the technical issues mentioned above but  also mandate the development of a robust implementation policy. A weak policy fails to educate the user, thereby increasing vulnerability to the above mentioned threats.

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