BYOD policies are becoming the norm in businesses everywhere. Before you put yours in place, make sure your IT Department has a plan for security on all of the devices.

It is no secret that cyber security is a component of the business that should never be ignored. While many businesses do take the basic actions necessary to better protect their business, they may still be leaving themselves open to potential attacks. This is because a lot of businesses now have a bring your own device (BYOD) policy where employees can do things like connect their work email to their personal phone, tablet, or even personal computer.

Benefits of a BYOD Policy

There are many reasons companies may decide that a BYOD policy can benefit their company. Many employees actually prefer it because they can easily work from home if they need to and it can make their lives that much easier. These are the main benefits of having a BYOD policy and it doesn’t look like it will be going anywhere anytime soon. While it is definitely something that can benefit many companies and employees, it is also something that can cause a great headaches for IT departments because they are poised with keeping all data safe.

How IT Departments Can Keep Everyone Safer

There are a few tricks that IT departments can implement that will allow all data to be more secure. These are just a few of those strategies:

• Limit Personal Device Use. While the BYOD policy is not likely to go away, IT departments can limit how much they can access from their personal device. They can also reduce how many devices have access to the business network.
• Encrypt Data. You do not want anyone being able to pull up restricted or sensitive data from their personal device. If people are using their personal devices, you need to find a way to encrypt the data. That way, in case the data ends up in the wrong hands or with a hacker, it will be much more difficult to actually reach the files.
• Create a Support Strategy. Sometimes it is not practical to limit the number of users but you can create a support strategy that can help solve issues on devices while also better protecting the company data. The support strategy you develop will vary depending on the type of business you are in.
• Implement Security Measures. If you only have one person using their personal devices or you have many, you need to make sure that their are security measures on the devices before it can be used to access work data. You also need to ensure that there are antivirus and anti malware software packages installed to better protect the device and the data. You can also make it a requirement that a password be placed on the device. There are many different things you could do to create security measures on these types of devices.

While many things can happen on BYOD devices, you need to take the time to implement a strategy and some safeguards to make sure all company and sensitive data is secure, even if the device is hacked or lost. For more information in the United States, be sure to contact CPU, Inc via (419) 872-9119 or info@CPUonline.com.

Published on 28th December 2016 by Jeanne DeWitt.