It’s quite obvious that BYOD is here to stay, especially with the increased popularity and sales of smartphones and tablets. The benefits are apparent, and we hear them over and over again. But that doesn’t mean all businesses are doing it the right way. There are still concerns surrounding BYOD, but there’s a way to move past them. IT naturally loses some control when BYOD is implemented, which can potentially increase risk. IT departments tend to fear viruses, data breaches, loss of devices and multiple other issues. But these risks can be addressed through a BYOD policy.
Define the purpose of the policy. What are your intentions? Cost savings? Increased productivity? Whatever the reason is, you need to know it, and then you need to communicate it to your team!
Training is important. While most users already know how to effectively use their devices, they might not know how to take the appropriate steps to ensure security. Establish the best practices of using personal devices for work, and train employees on data loss prevention, creating the most effective passwords, locking devices when they’re not in use, etc.
Do you want to limit the options? This one is up to your business, but by specifying what types of devices employees can use, support and security become much easier. You should also track devices, keeping a list of which ones and which users are permitted to access corporate information and monitoring their activity.
Is your IT department involved? You need to decide whether or not your IT department services these personal devices. This adds more responsibility to the IT team and requires knowledge of all sorts of devices, but it also keeps things inhouse and organized.
Make it clear who owns what. With personal devices comes personal data. You have to create expectations about having personal content on a device used for work, in case it is lost or stolen and needs to be wiped. Additionally, decide whether or not corporate data can be stored on a device’s hard drive.
Define user access controls. It’s important to decide and define how you will control user access to corporate information through their devices. Will you establish which applications, programs, services and websites employees can use? Will you create levels of access within your environment? Whatever you decide, communicate it to your employees and stick to it.
What are the consequences? These are rules, so you need to decide how to address rule breakers. Make sure employees know they will be held accountable for from the BYOD policy.
Have an exit strategy. You want to make sure that employees who leave the job don’t take your corporate data with them. Create a specific procedure, which might include removing their network access, wiping devices, etc.
There are many things to consider when laying out your BYOD Policies; the most important being your Network Security. If you want to learn more about how to strengthen your Network Security in the face of a mobile work force, contact the experts at Corporate Technologies Group.
*This is from an article by our partners at RapidScale