Abstract
This paper is about Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and risks associated with it. The conditions for risks to occur, the managerial and technical solutions to such risks are discussed.
Introduction
BYOD or Bring Your Own Device refers to the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their workplace, and to use those devices to access privileged company information and applications (Bradley December 20, 2011). This concept is a growing trend for the information technology and many more business sectors.
Businesses that appreciate Bringing Your Own Devices have some advantages over the others. For instance, the costs tend to shift towards the BYOD user instead of
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However there are an equal amount of risks involved with this. Security has been the primary concern. A superior authority monitoring the employees all the time is impossible. The manager has no right to access the devices of the workers as they are private. Also this might reduce productivity if the employees lose focus on work and use their devices for entertainment or personal benefits. Using and misusing data, network or resources in the workplace for personal gain. In some cases, data can be stolen from the organization using such devices causing loss or theft of data. Hence there is lack if control and potential malware threats (Pillay, Diaki et al. 2013).
Trend Drivers for BYOD BYOD is gaining high popularity and growth which is evident from the Ovum’s research paper published in 2012. Respondents in the emerging, “high-growth” markets (including Brazil, Russia, India, UAE, and Malaysia) demonstrate a much higher propensity to use their own device at work. Almost 75% of users in these countries did so, compared to 44% in the more mature developed markets. The research revealed that 79% of employees in high growth markets believe that constant connectivity with work applications enables them to their job better, versus 53.5% in mature markets. There is a distinct lack of BYOD management – everywhere. On average only 20.1% of employees who use personal devices have also signed a policy governing that behaviour. USA and India are nearer to 50%. The
The inappropriate disclosure or misuse of sensitive information by an employee may result in financial considerations and legal consequences for an organization. “Mobile devices provide all kinds of new scenarios for business data to go missing, be shared with others, or be stolen. You need to go into BYOD thinking this way, not just for everyday activity, but also when employees move on from your organization” (Arnold, n.d.).
The world of technology is revolving at a faster pace than ever before and has therefore brought the greatest challenges to businesses and individuals alike. Spartan Home Health Center (SHHC) is one of the many constituents that is affected by these rapid changes and seeks to gain more evidence to improve their overall business processes. A risk assessment is made to evaluate whether SHHC should continue the implementation of “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) policy. A qualitative analysis predicts that the pros outweigh the cons for this case which in part is complemented by a quantitative analysis that determines whether or not it would be profitable. After much thought and candor it has been decided that for its purposes, SHHC should indeed continue its BYOD policy.
The use of mobile devices has become so commonplace today that you can hardly step out your front door without them. We have become tethered to technology. Our dependence upon this technology is not the problem, how and where we choose to use it is.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is when an employee uses one or more personal computing devices for business purposes. It can include personal computers, laptops, tablets, USB or flash drives, mobile phones and even online computing services such as Dropbox or Google Drive. The history of BYOD stems from the technological advances of the past 25 years, starting with employees accessing corporate networks from their home computers via dial-up modems in the late 1980’s and virtual private networks starting in the early 1990’s, continuing through the massive increase in mobile phones and access to corporate email via Blackberry type devices and culminating in the current state of being connected all the time via tablets
If WickID Candles implements the BYOD plan, each employee would be able to use their personal cell phones for work purposes. They will be used to keep up with the workplace environment at home or whenever they are out of the office. This will allow to them have access to personal work data whether via their work email or access to the company 's personal sites. With BYOD, employees would be able to use their mobile devices to interact with customers, manage accounts, and even create new aspects of our online store. This plan would potentially give workers the flexibility to work at the leisure of their homes and to continue to work without being tied to the office. Our goal is that this will increase engagement with customers and increase work productivity.
BYOD lets employees use their personal devices for work, connecting to a corporate network. Generally you will cover a portion of the service plan's cost per employee. This policy is great for productivity because your employees don't
Many issues have surfaced, including what legal access an employer has to information on a personally owned device. In a recent study, 60% of employers indicated that they currently allow employees to use their personal phones, tablets, or laptops to access company information, or conduct business from the device. In addition, 14% of the respondents indicated that they don’t currently allow such use, but plan to implement a plan to do so within the next year. This new trend, referred to as “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) blurs the distinction of what is acceptable monitoring by an employer. Upon review of the website PrivacyRights.org, an employer can do the following on an employee owned device: “Locking, disabling and data wiping, access to the device, access to phone records or contacts, access to social media or other account username and passwords, monitor GPS and location information, view web browsing history, view pictures, video, or other media, view personal emails, view chat and messaging histories, and limit the use of cloud services.” (Clearinghouse, 2014) To protect both the employee and the employer, it is vital that an employer develop a BYOD policy, which clearly outlines the ramifications of what the employer does and does not have access to. In doing so, if a dispute were to arise
Due to advances in technology, smartphone availability and use is far more widespread than in the past. According to a study done by Ericsson[1], Singapore
Other types of risks could be the using of personal device at work. This principle is known as BYOD. BYOD is an IT policy where employees are allowed or encouraged to use their personal mobile device such as phones, tablets, and laptops to access enterprise data and systems. BYOD can expose a company network, and easily attract more attackers. Not only this kind of principle help the company, but it also can cause a serious security breach. Data theft is at high vulnerability when employees are using mobile devices, and particularly their own to share data, access company information, or neglect to change mobile passwords. It is important that a company that allows its employees to use their own devices to list BYOD in their risks list. To
First, many companies are now providing their employees with laptops and cellular devices. Employers have a right to monitor any equipment that is provided to employees. Employers feel they have this right, since they are paying for the equipment. Many companies now consider the use of company equipment for personal use, a violation of the code of conduct that has been established by the company. The use of personal devices should not be monitored.
Bring Your Own device is a business policy of employees bringing personally owned mobile devices to work and using those devices to access privileged company resources like email, file servers and databases as well as personal applications and data. The types of devices that employees may use are smart cell phones and laptops.
Employee interaction on all devices are relatively the same and have similar impact on all systems. Some companies are allowing you to bring your own device (BYOD) to work for an enhanced work experience and increased productivity. Some of the benefits from this are no tracking of daily productivity, the comfortability of having your own device, and lower costs to maintain company property. Depending on the size of your company BYOD could be extremely beneficial and allow the employees to take on much of the burden of debt to work at the company. The average mobile device cost approximately three hundred dollars and if you have anywhere from 10 to 20 employees that could raise the cost to about 500 dollars. Apple and windows users tend to be more familiar with their devices so it is easier to manipulate their business requirements as they need. Lastly, having the flexibility to utilize one device vice several saves a lot of discomfort whether on business or official travel. The ability to have your own dedicated
Attention Getter: Other than our car keys, our mobile devices have become something that we can’t leave the house with. This includes our smartphones, laptops, tablets, USBs, and digital cameras.
As technology advances and portable devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones being developed, the ‘bring your own device’ trend has been born. BYOD refers to a movement that has encouraged companies to allow their employees to bring their personal devices at work and be able to use them to access the company network. These portable devices not only make work easier, but they are also convenient as they allow employees to work from anywhere and not just their company offices. Although there are benefits to this trend, with it come disadvantages that are causing concerns and making some companies wonder if allowing this policy is a good idea.
In the current corporate environment, mobile devices such as mobile phones and tables have a great impact on the business process of companies and how employees can perform and fulfil everyday tasks. Companies are adopting the BYOD (bring your own device) policy for management of these devices. To protect sensitive data, employees, and customer, companies must have a policy in place to enable an effective and secure use of these devices. Using mobile devices without having a clear policy and without defining the company’s valuable assets that need protection is bad business and opens up unnecessary risk.