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FEATURE / MANAGEENGINE
ADOPTING A BYOD POLICY AMIDST THE COVID-19 ERA • By Alice Selvan
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n the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, even companies that had said “no” to BYOD have come to terms with it since a fair share of remote work would not even be possible without such a policy. Pandemic or no pandemic, on-the-go data access has always enabled employees to get work done quickly and efficiently. It guarantees better communication with colleagues and improves customer service, and device familiarity brings employee satisfaction and increased productivity. Employees using their own devices also relieve the company of device, licensing, and maintenance costs. More people adapting to remote work implies more personal devices are accessing business-critical data. Over 72% of organisations lack a plan to secure BYOD devices, or have not yet identified their need for one, and this increases the risk of data breaches and cybercrime. However, implementing BYOD at an enterprise level comes with its own set of challenges:
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• Protecting against cyberthreats
• Securing critical data
• Keeping up with compliance requirements
• Responding to theft
Employees using their own devices for work, or uploading or downloading critical data while connecting to public Wi-Fi networks, allows cybercriminals to get their hands on organisational data. The spike to 4,000 cyberattacks per day since the COVID-19 pandemic started stands as proof of that.
With personal and corporate data coexisting on the same device, ensuring employees’ devices adhere to the required compliance policies, like the GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, can be challenging. Any unapproved transfer of confidential data can cost the company its reputation and lead to severe data protection fines.
• Providing multi-platform device support
Supporting a plethora of devices, including all the different platforms, models, and versions, can be a headache for an IT admin, and it can turn into an even bigger one if an employee uses more than one device for work.
Data on corporate devices is easier to protect with the company’s firewall shielding it, but that’s not the case with BYOD devices. Some employees might share their credentials, postpone critical updates, connect to insecure Wi-Fi networks or respond to scams like phishing attacks, all of which endanger corporate data. Mobile devices, especially smartphones, are easily lost or misplaced, and this can end up jeopardising business-critical data.
• Getting employee approval It might be the company’s data, but it’s the employee’s device after all. Organisations need to strike a balance between monitoring and protecting their data on devices and giving employees their share of privacy.
SOLVING BYOD CHALLENGES Although BYOD ushers in its own set of challenges, steps can be taken to ensure the policy works effectively both from the employee’s and the organisation’s point of view.
