BYOD: Don't Bring Your Own Device Until You Bring in a Policy

The lines between home and the office have been blurring over the past ten years, and technology has played a large part in that. Even more recently, employees at small companies are using a collection of personally owned tablets, mobiles, and laptops to get work done in and out of the office. Part of this is a matter of necessity, especially if dedicated laptops aren’t in your business’s budget, and part of it is convenience. But convenience often comes at the price of security. Here’s how:

Personal devices often don’t meet PII and HIPAA standards.

When most people talk about cyber-security, it’s often in terms of malware, hackers, and stolen information. But not all vulnerabilities are malicious. Many times, not having an adequately defensive infrastructure is enough to make your company liable, even if no one is trying to access the information. When your employees choose their own virus protection systems, don’t always password-protect their phones, or share their phones with children, you have a security problem on your hands.

Most mobiles don’t have security apps.

It’s been a long-established idea that Apple products don’t get viruses. This may have been mostly true at the beginning: Macs were so infrequent that virus builders had a better rate of return with Windows viruses. But now people have Apple phones, Linux tablets, and Internet of Things devices with no known operating system. Each of these systems is vulnerable to attack, and security through obscurity is not enough.

Not knowing the backstory of devices that hold and access information your company is accountable for is always dangerous, even if nothing happens. Go to Kotori Technologies, LLC to develop an acceptable use policy and keep your company safe.