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In the last decade, employers have become more lenient about allowing workers to use their personal laptops and mobile devices for work, but it’s still not the standard.
According to one survey, 89% of workers said they’d take a pay cut to use a device of their choice. And while it can save your business money and increase employee productivity, this practice carries significant security risks.
The Liabilities of a BYOD Policy
If you’re going to adopt a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for your company, here’s what you need to know.
1. You’re fully responsible for security breaches.
If one of your employees causes a data security breach, with or without negligence or intention, you’re legally responsible for the fallout. The incident could be a data breach that leads to $4 million in fines, or a situation that exposes proprietary information to a competitor. In any case, you can’t point fingers at the employee to pay your regulatory fines.
While a security incident can happen with any device, personal devices carry a higher risk. For example, employers who don’t allow work computers to be taken home don’t need to worry about their devices getting stolen from a random coffee shop or because their employer left their bag on the train. Likewise, known employees of your company won’t have anything worthwhile to hand over if they get mugged by an unethical competitor.
2. Unauthorized apps are a huge threat.
People tend to download a host of applications on their personal devices, and this can spell bad news for your company. Not only will your employees be using apps that can likely access company data stored on their devices, but they might start using unauthorized cloud storage services for work-related files. If you didn’t vet the cloud service and approve it, any data stored could be exposed, stolen, or even deleted if the service is breached.
3. Automatic data synchronization is a threat.
Apps that sync data between devices can unintentionally transfer sensitive company data to unsecured locations, which increases the potential for a data leak or breach. If part of your company’s security policy is to keep data encrypted end-to-end, these types of accidents will still be considered legal violations.
4. Limited control
You can’t monitor your employees’ personal devices all the time, and that means you have no idea if they’re accessing company accounts off the clock. If they were required to leave their company laptop in the office at the end of the day, you wouldn’t need to worry about things like this.
5. Malicious files and applications
Employees might download a virus, ransomware, or a keystroke logger that will expose all your company’s account logins to the hacker. They might even get caught in a phishing scheme. On their own, employees are unlikely to protect their devices properly.
Secure personal devices used for work purposes
Since you’re legally responsible for everything that happens to your company, it’s in your best interest to limit potential liabilities. BYOD policies are massive liabilities. However, if you must embrace this policy, you need to give employees every reason to be diligent while implementing safeguards to protect your company’s data.
1. Data security violations should result in automatic termination.
It may sound harsh to skip the write-ups and warnings, but your business comes first. Violating security policies should be a fireable offense with no exceptions. Don’t give the impression that you’ll give second chances because it will only make people lazy.
2. Install device management software.
Device management software is the only way to enforce security policies with BYOD in place. It’s a simple application that allows you to manage device settings, install and uninstall apps, monitor device activity, and remotely wipe a device if it’s lost or stolen.
3. Create and enforce a strict policy.
If you’re going to allow workers to use personal devices for work, create an extensive, strict BYOD policy that outlines what devices can be used, along with a list of requirements. For example, every device needs to remain in the company-issued protective case, self-repairs are not permitted, security updates must be installed promptly, the device must not be in anyone else’s possession at any time, and device monitoring software must be installed. If anyone doesn’t agree to your rules, require them to use a company device.
BYOD is a liability that needs mitigation
At the end of the day, BYOD is a liability, but if you choose to implement it in your company, be sure to mitigate the potential consequences. Create a strict policy, enforce it to the letter, and require device management software to approve a device. No matter how much you trust your team, you should always adopt a zero-trust policy.
