BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is fairly new technology, and while its use has been spreading at increasingly larger rates over the last few years, there are many companies that are just now getting around to implementing it into their policies. BYOD offers many benefits, such as cost reduction, time reduction, employee satisfaction, greater work efficiency, and of course, the ability to work remotely. But with all the benefits it brings, BYOD has been criticized for having security flaws and the possibility of company data leakage. Here are the top 5 mistakes many CIOs make when implementing BYOD, and how you can prevent them.
Unsecured apps
One mistake that many CIOs make is not informing employees which apps are okay to use for company business and which apps should be avoided as they can pose potential leaks. An unsecured app can be disastrous when dealing with sensitive company data or confidential client information. Some CIOs have taken control of this problem by creating their own enterprise app stores to allow employees the freedom to choose between a wide array of company apps that have been secured.
The whole purpose of BYOD is to allow employees the freedom to use their own device and, in many cases, to use their own services or apps. But putting company data at risk is not an option; so a compromise must be found, to ensure that the employee stays satisfied enough to continue completing tasks efficiently while company data stays secured.
Monitoring mobile devices
While companies must secure their data, many employees have become upset with what they deem to be privacy rights violations. The IT department installs monitoring software on their mobile devices which can track where the employees are at any given time and it also monitors the usage of company data. This is extremely helpful to the company as the IT department can get a heads up if a leak occurs or if there is the possibility of an upcoming threat.
However; employees are not happy to have their personal text messages, photos, browsing history, etc. on display for all of IT to observe. So this has forced many employees to purchase two phones or mobile devices, one for personal use and one for company use. Smartphone manufacturers have taken note of this however, at least Samsung has, as the new Samsung galaxy S4 was released with the option of having Knox Security installed. This separates the phone into two completely separate sections- one for personal use and one for company use. I would expect to see other smartphone manufacturers follow suit soon.
Poor communication
Communication between the IT department and employees using BYOD is essential. Employees must know what is being monitored on their device. They need to be informed what types of apps could be harmful to the company. What is the privacy policy involving BYOD? What to do in case their mobile device gets lost or stolen. And you most definitely want to have them informed on the consequences if they don’t follow the policies and a breach or leakage occurs as a result.
Most of the early companies that accepted BYOD, created policies without much information and security. And IT generally created policies and just expected the users to read and follow it. This has led to some mishaps over the years, an increase in security and criticism of the entire BYOD movement. But BYOD isn’t the problem, it can still be used to improve company efficiency, reduce worker time and cut costs. It just needs to be secured and the policies enforced.
Allowance of all mobile devices
Another major mistake that many companies have made is too little monitoring. They allow employees to bring in any mobile device and start accessing company data on that device. Smartphones that have been rooted or jailbroken have the possibility of carrying malware, and that’s the last thing you need on a device accessing confidential or sensitive company data. All mobile devices should be checked out before allowing them to enter the BYOD program.
No backup plan in place
With all this company data floating around in the cloud and being created, revised and transferred between employee mobile devices, there is a good possibility that some of it will get lost. This can cost the company time and money as the work will have to be performed again, if that’s even a possibility.
A competent BYOD plan will have a solid policy for employees to store their files and documents in the cloud. But what if the files get accidentally or maliciously deleted? Lost files can quickly become a headache, especially in a large corporation where the files may not be found again. This is why it’s critical to have a solid backup plan.
A cloud storage provider does an excellent job at receiving and storing your files. But if you delete a file accidentally and can’t find it, you can be in trouble. A cloud backup service like cloudHQ is the perfect solution. CloudHQ has a motto- don’t put all your eggs in one basket. This is great advice because if that one “basket” gets deleted or experiences data loss, it could be lost forever.
So cloudHQ came up with a great plan. What if you can take the data that you have stored in a cloud storage account and completely replicate it to a backup cloud account, on a totally separate cloud storage platform? This backup account would have completely separate authentication and login information, so even if a hacker (or disgruntled employee) gets into the main account and deletes data, the data remains completely intact in the backup cloud account.
Best of all- cloudHQ replicates your data automatically, continuously and transparently. Replication is completely automatic; every time you add a file or revise a file, the changes are instantly replicated to the backup cloud account. And cloudHQ runs in the background silently, so you and your employees are never interrupted while you are working.
As BYOD usage spreads, we expect to hear many more stories about data loss from employees accessing company data on their mobile devices. Don’t be left standing there wishing you had a solid backup plan in place. You need to take action and secure your company data now.
CloudHQ offers a 15-day trial period that is not limited in any way, so you can check out the many benefits and the peace-of-mind that the cloudHQ company data backup and replication service brings you.