BYOD Security: How to ensure device security

With the digital transformation, boosted by the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of users were forced to work remotely. In many cases, corporate devices have been replaced by the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies.
But what is it and how to maintain BYOD security? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a term that is on the rise and is simply based on allowing employees to access corporate information directly from a personal device, which generates great mobility and productivity for the company. However, this type of change also generates risks, such as the increased vulnerability of the information handled on the device.
A fact that indicates this is the significant increase in phishing attacks in Italy during the coronavirus outbreak, reaching 300%, compared with the average from the previous year.
This increase is mainly due to the high vulnerability of personal devices being connected to corporate environments and/or corporate devices being connected to home networks due to the quarantine.
Observing the vulnerability of corporate devices and knowing the importance of using this type of device, a great discussion has been raised on how to manage and ensure BYOD security.
In this article, you will learn how to take advantage of all the BYOD benefits without jeopardizing your corporation’s information security.
The advantages of using BYOD
In addition to increasing an employee’s efficiency and their flexibility to perform their tasks, a company that uses BYOD is able to increase the employee’s productivity, since they will use devices with which they are more used to.
Equipment costs are also significantly reduced, as professionals can use their own devices to work or just receive work equipment, such as a smartphone or laptop, without having to provide a physical structure, servers, and network, for example.
Disadvantages in BYOD security
When you use BYOD in your company, you lose some control over the data being used by employees, which increases the risk of malicious files infiltrating the device, leaving the device vulnerable to data leaks. For this reason, the BYOD security must be effective.
There is another major problem in BYOD, which is the difficulty for a professional to “disconnect” from the company even at home, using the device outside working hours, increasing their dissatisfaction with the company and/or using the device for other purposes.
Measures to be taken
There are several measures that a corporation must take to ensure BYOD security, such as:
- In organizations where the security system is a priority, some systems are more secure due to constant long-term updates.
- Set usage time.
- Set system, backup, and password update rules.
- Forbid or impose rules for installing new applications;
- Set and limit the functions to be allowed on these devices.
In addition, some more effective types of security management prevent hackers from being able to infiltrate data by analyzing threats and managing user privileges.
The senhasegura solution, in which one can integrate their devices – including BYODs – to a safe and efficient platform, prevents any type of vulnerability in the device.
Do you want to learn more about the solution? Click here and find out.