With more and more companies allowing employees to bring their own devices, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is gaining traction. By allowing workforce mobility and flexibility, BYOD has had a significant impact on the traditional IT model.
Although BYOD has greatly improved workforce productivity, it has brought about various challenges to business data and IT security. This is especially true of small and medium enterprises that typically lack knowledge and resources to mitigate BYOD risks and make the most of the opportunities it brings.
Let’s take a look at some of the key challenges that you might be facing when implementing BYOD policy in your organization.
Software Issues
Mobile phones and tablets are the weakest links when it comes to data security. A study identifies that 97 percent of employee’s devices have privacy issues, while 75 percent of them lack appropriate encryption to keep business data secure. This, coupled with the fact that most of the devices lack anti-virus protection or contain outdated firewall protection, means that the company’s digital environment has become more prone to attacks, thus opening the floodgates of data leakage.
Gartner predicts that one in two companies will stop providing devices to their employees by 2017. Therefore, organizations are responsible to implement robust device management policies to keep devices secure so as to control the riskiness of the business environment.
A centralized system like Mobile Device Management (MDM) can be a good way to keep track of the operating systems within the environment to ensure that the entire system is upgraded and secure.
Malicious Attacks
One of the most serious concerns for BYOD-driven organizations is dealing with the challenges of storing personal and corporate data on the same device. When the employees use a single device for both personal and professional purposes, there is always a risk of data theft. Theft may result from malware or malicious programs that users may install unknowingly. With these malicious programs, hackers may acquire login credentials to have access to the business network. An effective way to overcome the challenge is to implement a multi-layered verification system to make sure that only authorized users are granted the access to the business network.
Untrustworthy Employees
BYOD can make it easier for people to steal company’s confidential data. While it’s not possible to obliterate the risk completely, businesses need to have a strong endpoint security to prevent data leakage. Besides, establish a stricter policy regarding data privacy and confidentiality to prevent people from exploiting corporate data.
Secure your IT environment by running a vulnerability scan with us. Along with vulnerability scanning service, we offer penetration testing, web service security testing, and mobile app security testing to make sure that your business environment remains safe and protected. Get a trial or contact us at +61 (0) 2 8231 6635 to learn more about our services.