Bring-your-own-device. Four words that strike fear in the heart of security experts the world over and for good reason. Allowing employees to access company resources from their personal devices can pose serious risks for the security of an organization. Threats range from complex scenarios like a vicious malware attack designed to spy on an employee’s browser history or as simple as a phone forgotten in a cab or restaurant. On the flipside BYOD policies help save money and inspire happiness in employees who love the option to choose what device they use for work. Maintain the security of your business and keep employees happy by adopting solid policies surrounding the use of personal devices at work.

Read below for a list of best practices to help set your organization on the path to BYOD success.  

No BYOD policy? Build one ASAP.

Allowing employees to use personal devices for work without adopting a BYOD policy is like inviting a roomful of strangers to party in your home. You don’t know who your guests are, where they came from or what they’ll leave with. Every business needs to build an understandable BYOD policy to manage usage and security and meet the needs and expectations of all users. Your BYOD policy must adhere to industry requirements, meet employees’ application needs and be built on a foundation of enforcement and management tools.

Build flexibility into your BYOD practice.

Use technologies that are open and able to support a wide variety of applications. Think of it like Yoga for your business-lean, limber and open. Any organization considering widespread BYOD adoption must also be sure to give users access to applications like Cisco Spark that are easy to use and promote productivity and collaboration.

Keep usage policies up-to-date.

Congratulations! Your organization is ahead of the pack and leading the charge in the realm of BYOD. Don’t fall behind by ignoring changes in technology and new devices. Stay ahead of your competition by actively monitoring technology trends and encourage employees to reach out with information surrounding new devices they’d like to use. Additionally, address and monitor the level of usage within your organization to protect sensitive data and make policy changes as needed.

Prepare your network.

Employees using personal devices will quickly eat-up bandwidth and tax an organizations resources. Take a good look at your network to be sure it is capable of handling the increased demands. In today’s world no organization can afford downtime created by a network ill prepared for the requirements of BYOD. We can help to ensure your network is prepped, primed and ready to handle the traffic of employees with application rich devices.

Secure the endpoints.

To minimize security issues presented by the widespread use of employee personal devices it is critical to secure all endpoints. Review WiFi security, VPN access and if necessary research ad-on software to reduce the threat of malware. We love the Cisco Meraki BYOD cloud-managed solution as it integrates all hardware and software technologies into an “out-of-the-box” solution that is easy to deploy and use.

Increased productivity, enhanced employee satisfaction and large-scale cost savings are just a handful of positive attributes for businesses willing to take the leap into BYOD. If you’d like to know how we can help to create and deploy a BYOD strategy for your business get in touch or leave a comment below.