The BYOD Problem

March 31, 2017 / G C Network / Comments Off

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OMG Cloud Standards Summit

By G C Network | July 2, 2009

July 13-15, 2009, in Arlington, VA, the Object Management Group, is holding a Standards in Government & NGO’s Workshop. During the first day, the Cloud Computing Standards Summit will focus…

NDU IRM Cloud Computing Event “Sold Out”!!!

By G C Network | July 2, 2009

Hope you’ve already registered for the “The Cloud Computing Symposium” , Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at the National Defense University in Washington, DC! This promises to be the premier government…

SSA’s Jim Borland on Healthcare Information Technology

By G C Network | June 25, 2009

Today, on this week’s Federal News Radio Federal Executive Forum webcast, Mr. Jim Borland, Special Advisor for Health IT, Office of the Commissioner, Social Security Administration(SSA), will discuss the value…

Dr. Leslie Lenert of CDC Speaks on Healthcare IT

By G C Network | June 24, 2009

During this week’s Federal News Radio Federal Executive Forum pre-recording, Dr. Leslie Lenert, Director, National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),…

Linda Fischetti on VHA Healthcare

By G C Network | June 23, 2009

This week pre-recording of Federal News Radio Federal Executive Forum featured Linda Fischetti , Health Informatics Architect at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). During a panel discussion, her comments on…

Vish Sankaran, HHS, Speaks on Healthcare IT

By G C Network | June 22, 2009

During the pre-recording of this weeks Federal News Radio Federal Executive Forum, Vish Sankaran, Program Director of Federal Health Architecture, discussed the role of information technology in improving the country’s…

Iranian Protests Showcase Twitter, Facebook, YouTube (and Cloud Computing) !

By G C Network | June 21, 2009

In covering unfolding events in Iran, the world’s most powerful news outlets have been entirely dependent on the Twitter-provided flow of text, images, and video. While this has definitely showcased…

Two Days with AWS Federal

By G C Network | June 18, 2009

Today, I start two days of training with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Federal. If that’s the first time you’ve ever heard about an AWS Federal division, your not alone. Held…

Maneuver Warfare in IT: A Cheerleading Pundit

By G C Network | June 15, 2009

The Twitter conversation between Christofer Hoff and I went like this: Christofer – I haven’t formally blogged a resp. (yet) to @Kevin_Jackson on his ‘maneuver warfare in IT’ Not just a cultural shift but a…

Expanding Maneuver Warfare in IT

By G C Network | June 12, 2009

Earlier this week I published “Cloud Computing: The Dawn of Maneuver Warfare in IT Security” via Ulitzer. In publishing the article my intent was to explore the more dynamic approach…

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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: