Essay Example on BYOD which Stands for bring your Own Devices

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Using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has a lot of advantages whether they are being used for personal life or for work For a lot of employees using such devices enables them to work on the go and be more efficient as a result which is why companies of all sizes have been issuing portable devices to their employees for decades This has now been replaced with BYOD Introduction With the rise of IT consumerization a new practice has emerged BYOD which stands for bring your own devices and allows employees to use devices they already own are familiar and comfortable with for work purposes BYOD is thought to increase employee satisfaction and productivity which are considered its main advantages as well as bring other benefits to organisations such as reducing operational costs or making the company seem more tech savvy by prospective employees Disterer Kleiner 2013 There is a significant amount of research produced on the topic of BYOD which seems to focus predominantly on its risks With the use of personal devices for work purposes employees may allow security breaches that would not otherwise happen if they were using a device that was configured specifically for storing and managing sensitive business information

However it is also up to the employer if they are offering use of BYOD to implement effective BYOD policies and ensure the BYOD ISSP is being adhered to by employees as well as to introduce appropriate software and its configuration on both company s and employees devices All of these concerns play an important part in making use of employee s own devices for work purposes as safe as possible and it is both employers and employees responsibility to ensure that everyone benefits from it Chapter 1 Risks and solutions According to Hovav and Putri 2016 only less than 50 of companies that allow their employees to use their personal devices for work have a BYOD security strategy The main issue with such lax approach is that consumer devices were not originally designed for use with sensitive or confidential information and most of them lack advanced security features or often have them disabled by default therefore such devices themselves pose an immediate security concern

This suggests that employers need to identify possible risks to their sensitive data and take all the possible measures to ensure that BYOD helps their business instead of damaging it Risks Unauthorised access Unauthorised access to corporate networks can cause a multitude of issues such as security risks loss of confidential data or inflicting unnecessary costs Horton 2015 This includes access of confidential information by lower level or unauthorised employees who may obtain it if the network is not configured appropriately Similarly employees own devices connecting to arbitrary networks pose significant risks if the network is not secure all including corporate sensitive information that may be stored on employee s device is open to unauthorised access Tokuyoshi 2013 Data contamination unauthorised copies malware and phishing As a result of employees using their devices both for personal and work use some of their personal data may mix with company's data which in turn may breach employee s confidentiality or even spread malware to company s files servers and other assets if the employee's personal file is infected According to Romer 2014 new forms of malware are on the rise and have been growing 15 every year With the rise of BYOD hackers have started targeting mobile devices Phishing attacks are now being designed to trigger during evenings and weekends when employees are catching up on work using their own devices at home or in transit The malware that would be detected almost instantly on a work computer may keep producing more attacks while supplying information to the attackers up until it is noticed and removed by then it will have caused irreversible damage to the company However If information is secured well and is therefore routinely harder for employees to access some workers might see it as an unnecessary obstacle and take the initiative of making unauthorised copies that will not be stored securely risking unauthorised third party access This is especially the case if such copies are stored on public cloud services or a file sharing service which would make them particularly vulnerable Romer 2014 In the case of Google Drive and possibly similar services as well its fine print indicates that Google have the right to modify copy and distribute their users personal files as soon as they are uploaded onto their servers which in the case of sensitive or confidential data is completely inappropriate Blizzard 2015 Lost and stolen devices According to research Romer 2014 one smartphone is lost in the United States every 3 5 seconds Without special precautions all confidential data on a lost device may be obtained by unauthorised individuals but even if the device does not contain any such data it still may include applications or cached traces that will be of significant use to someone looking to infiltrate the business

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