The BYOD Problem

March 31, 2017 / G C Network / Comments Off

Twitter Feed

Convergence: The Catalyst to Transform Scientific Research

By G C Network | January 7, 2015

by Melvin Greer Greer Institute for Leadership and Innovation A new transformative research approach is gaining global attention and adoption. The scientific opportunities enabled by convergence—the coming together of insights…

Cloud Computing Promises: Fact or Fiction

By G C Network | December 29, 2014

Cloud computing is currently making information technology headlines, and vendors are aggressively promoting the many benefits it can provide organizations. This White Paper addresses the claims and questions that are…

Super Smart Person’s Guide to Cloud Computing – San Diego

By G C Network | December 24, 2014

We are offering a fun and educational event just about the cloud. This session will help CEOs, Directors, Managers, and Dilberts learn what the heck the cloud is all about.…

A Managed Services Business Owners Lament: A talk with Joe D.

By G C Network | December 22, 2014

by Kevin L. Jackson A few days ago I received a call from a small business owner asking if I would meet him for coffee. He wanted to run some…

Technology and the Evolving Workforce

By G C Network | December 17, 2014

by Melvin Greer Managing Director Greer Institute for Leadership and Innovation According to a Greer Institute Workforce and Talent study, the 2020 workforce is both “the most educated and culturally…

Security attacks and countermeasures

By G C Network | December 14, 2014

by Sandra K. Johnson Cyber security is rapidly becoming a significant issue in the C-suite as well as the population at large. The results of Dell’s Global Technology Adoption…

ITIL in 7 Minutes!

By G C Network | December 9, 2014

What is ITIL & how can it benefit your organization? Learn the answers to these questions plus gain an understanding of the ITIL Service Lifecycle in this video. Download a…

How Resilient are FedRAMP Clouds Anyway?

By G C Network | December 8, 2014

By Jodi Kohut For the uninitiated, FedRAMP is the Federal Risk Authorizationand Management Program, a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for…

Federal Tech Talk: Cloud Transition Challenges in Government and Industry

By G C Network | December 2, 2014

Cloud Computing is revolutionizing today’s business marketplace. While “learning the art of the possible”, corporate executives today are struggling with the business and security challenges associate with this important transition. Just…

Cloud, Mobile, Social and Cyber: 2015 Predictions That Will Rock The World (AGAIN!)

By G C Network | December 1, 2014

2015 PREDICTION TIME!! The worlds of cloud, mobile, social and cyber will continue expanding, permuting and recombining. Their individual effect on society and commerce will become moot as these technological…

« Previous
1
…
19
20
21
22
23
…
73
Next »

Everyone wants their device of choice right there next to them 24/7. To an employer, however, that smart device is nothing more than a dagger posed to rip apart every shred of corporate security. This reality of modern business was highlighted by the Information Security Community on LinkedIn through their 2016 Spotlight Report on “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD). The key trends influencing enterprise BYOD and mobile security line up as follows:

Increased employee mobility (63%), satisfaction (56%) and productivity (55%) dominate as the top drivers of BYOD. These employee related drivers are considered more important than reduced costs (47%).
Security (39%) and employee privacy (12%) are the biggest inhibitors of BYOD adoption.
20% of surveyed organizations have suffered a mobile security breach, primarily driven by malware and malicious WiFi.
Security threats to BYOD impose heavy burdens on organizations’ IT resources (35%) and help desk workloads (27%).
Despite increasing mobile security threats, data breaches and new regulations, only 30% of organizations are increasing security budgets for BYOD in the next 12 months and 37% have no plans to change their security budgets.

These trends clearly highlight the need for enhanced data and application security in enterprise mobility and cloud computing. They also reinforce the burden of securing data, applications, and devices that is being placed on the employer. Looking solely from the employer’s point of view, the report also summarized the mobility security concerns as follows:

72% – Data leakage/loss
56% – Unauthorized access to company data and systems
54% – Downloading of unsafe apps or content
52% – Malware
50% – Lost or stolen devices
49% – Vulnerability exploitation
48% – Lack of control on endpoint security
39% – Infrequent software updates
38% – Compliance

These findings indicate that enterprise mobility is a very dangerous threat vector that can be ruinous to any business. Unmanaged or ungoverned use of devices can lead to loss of customers, loss of sales, and costly legal and financial fines. This truth led IBM to offer the following Ten Rules for BYOD:

1. Create your policy before procuring technology: To effectively use mobile device management (MDM) technology for employee owned devices Policy must precede technology. Also note that these policies will have broad corporate-wide implications for IT, HR, legal, and security.

2. Find the devices that are accessing corporate resources: Companies must completely understand the current landscape of mobile device usage. Doing this will require using a tool that can communicate continuously with your network environment and detect all connected devices connected.

3. BYOD Enrollment for employees should be simple: Complexity tends to breed non-compliance. To address this issue, the BYOD program should use technology that allows for a simple, low touch way for users to enroll. The process should also concurrently configure the newly enrolled device.

4. Configure your devices over-the-air: To optimize efficiency for both IT and business users, devices should be configured over-the-air. Policies to restrict access to certain applications should also be in-place.

5. Help your users help themselves: A robust self-service platform that lets users perform the following functions should be made available:

· PIN and password resets

· Geo-locate a lost device from a web portal

· Remote wiping of sensitive corporate data

6. Keep personal information private: A well-crafted BYOD program keeps personal employee data away from others. Communicate the privacy policy to employees and make it clear what data cannot collect from their mobile devices

7. Keep personal information separate from corporate data: Corporate apps, documents, and other materials must be protected if the employee decides to leave the organization. Personal email, apps, and photos, however, should be left untouched.

8. Manage data usage: The organization should be able to track in network and roaming data usage on devices, generating warnings should a user goes over their data usage or stipend limit.

9. Continually monitor devices for noncompliance: Devices should be continuously monitored for certain scenarios, and automated policies should be in place. A few common issues are:

· “Jailbreaking” or “rooting” a phone

· Use of unapproved applications (like Angry Birds) that don’t rise to the level that requires an automatic wipe of the device

· Providing a simple way to be alerted when a new OS is ready for installation and making it a self-service function.

10. Enjoy the return on investment (ROI) from BYOD: Although BYOD shifts responsibility for purchasing devices to employees, it’s worth considering the big picture and long-term costs for your organization.

BYOD is now a corporate fact of life. If your environment includes traditional desktops and mobile devices, your organization may also need to consider working with a partner that has the specialized IT skills to migrate, integrate and maintain all types of IT network endpoints. IBM Mobile Virtualization Services should be considered as that partner in order to ease mobile user and application migration issues. Available services include: