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Blog: IT 'BYOD' Issues Creating Headaches in the Enterprise
Michael Hatamoto - January 23, 2013 8:12 AM

4 comment(s) - last by Flunk.. on Jan 24 at 4:12 PM

There is a major upside to BYOD, but trying to find it has been difficult for companies

Companies are finding out the hard way that employees enjoying a ‘bring your own device’ policy can open the door to costly security issues and loss of productivity.

The wider adoption of BYOD increases the risk of security breaches, according to recently published research, with only a small number of businesses creating BYOD policies.

“Last year was clearly a bumpy road for companies introducing personal devices at work,” said Tony Grace, Virgin Media Business COO, in a press statement. “That’s natural enough as no-one has so far been able to come up with the magic solution. CIOs shouldn’t see this as a burden and in 2013 they can take the lessons learned and turn these personal devices into business enablers to really help drive the bottom line.”

Late last year, a CounterTack survey of IT security officials revealed that most companies are clearly unprepared to tackle BYOD policy.

Companies initially save money by avoiding an initial investment of purchasing smartphones and tablets for employees, though may invest more in the long-term due to BYOD-related costs.

Some security experts have dubbed BYOD as ‘bring your own disaster,’ though password protection, encrypted data, and disabling apps provide temporary security shortcuts to help aid in data loss. Adoping virtual private network (VPN) use and remote lock and wipe functionality on compromised mobile devices are becoming popular solutions to limit damage in case of a security issue related to BYOD.

Research In Motion, the struggling maker of the BlackBerry line of smartphones, has partnered with VMware and Red Bend Software to help develop a BYOD technology for enterprise employees. Utilizing BlackBerry Balance software, workers can use their own smartphones or tablets without compromising privacy or security, and can help split personal and work tasks.

I don’t think there is an easy answer to solve all BYOD issues, although it’s up to the company to create BYOD rules – and work with the IT department to find adequate solutions.

Sources: The Mobility Hub, Virgin Media Business

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all IT the same

By DockScience on 1/23/2013 2:06:10 PM , Rating: 2

All corporate IT groups are the same.
Control is the most important job. Users and apps are dangerous, the system must be protected and served.

My former Fortune 50 company had a department called: "End User Computing"

What people failed to realize was that this was a verb phrase, not a noun phrase.

RE: all IT the same

By Flunk on 1/24/2013 4:12:39 PM , Rating: 2

Actually... "Computing" is a gerund so it works as an noun phrase.

Parent

CIO Mindset vs CISO mindset

By Ramstark on 1/23/2013 8:30:02 PM , Rating: 2

The CIO may think "wow, we can go BYOD and save those costly annual contracts with the OEMs" but they are not thinking about the maintenance, user support and obviously the Chief Information Security Officer work.
Now, instead putting those two to fight, why don't companies make the understand that both mindsets can work together: "Let's find a way to save in security hardware AND user hardware" or "Which security issues would our structure face when using BYOD?"
Sadly, the majority of companies just want to "stay updated with the trend" and implement technologies and processes without proper planning...

BYOD forget it!

By johnsmith9875 on 1/24/2013 1:52:04 PM , Rating: 2

The device is the cheap part of the system, why bend over backwards so users can use their equipment. This is one of those times when an Apple-style closed ecosystem is a good thing!