BYOD Definition

What is BYOD?

A bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy enables employees to use personal devices to access corporate applications and data and do their jobs. Many organizations have adopted BYOD policies in recent years because they bring significant benefits for the organization and its employee. However, a BYOD program also introduces security risks if not properly designed and managed.

How Does BYOD Work?

In the past, most organizations provided company-owned devices to their employees for them to do their jobs. However, as businesses become more distributed, they have increasingly created BYOD policies. Reliance on contractors, support for remote work, and the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic all contributed to BYOD adoption.,

Under a BYOD program, an employee is typically required to sign an agreement in which the terms of the program are laid out. After doing so and complying with any relevant corporate policies, the employee is permitted to use personal devices for business.

The Benefits of BYOD

BYOD policies have grown increasingly popular over the years because they provide benefits to both an organization and its employees. Some of the most common benefits of BYOD include:

• Efficiency: BYOD policies allow employees to work from familiar devices. This eliminates the ramp-up time it takes for an employee to become familiar with their corporate computer and able to do their job effectively.
• Employee Satisfaction: The ability to work from personal devices is often a major selling point for employees. BYOD is more convenient because it decreases the number of devices that employees need to tote around and enables them to work from their preferred device.
• Lower Cost: If an organization provides its employees with company-owned devices, it needs to pay for those devices. BYOD policies can be more cost-effective because the employees purchase their own devices.
• Support for Remote Work: BYOD policies are a logical complement to remote and hybrid work policies. While working from home, employees can use personal devices rather than bringing a company-owned device home.

The Downsides of BYOD

However, BYOD policies also create operational and security challenges for an organization. These include:

• Insecure Devices: Personally-owned devices may not be configured as securely or updated as regularly as company-owned devices. This potentially leaves them open to exploitation.
• Reduced Control: The company doesn’t own the devices that it allows users to work from under BYOD policies. This makes it more difficult to mandate the use of certain security controls such as a company-owned antivirus.
• Increased IT Complexity: BYOD programs result in employees working from a wide range of devices. This makes IT support more difficult because IT technicians may need to troubleshoot issues specific to a certain device.
• Privacy Concerns: With BYOD, work is being performed on personally-owned devices. Comingling business and personal data and applications makes it difficult to implement good security monitoring for business data without violating employees’ privacy.
• Compliance Challenges: The use of personally owned devices may increase the difficulty of enforcing the use of certain security controls. This complicates an organization’s efforts to remain compliant with certain laws and regulations.

Managing BYOD Security Risks

Many of the security risks that BYOD poses to a company can be managed by implementing security best practices such as:

• Strong Authentication: Personally-owned devices that travel with their owners are more likely to be lost or stolen. Strong user authentication — including multi-factor authentication (MFA) — is important to verify the user’s identity before allowing them access to corporate applications and data.
• Network Access Control (NAC): NAC solutions validate that a device meets certain requirements before it is permitted access to the corporate network. For example, a NAC system may block access to any device that isn’t up-to-date on security updates.
• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): ZTNA solutions implement least privilege access controls for access to the corporate network and applications. Users are only able to see and access those resources that they need to do their jobs.
• Mobile Device Management (MDM): MDM solutions enable organizations to manage mobile devices. This helps them to ensure that devices are secure and protected against malicious mobile apps.

Conclusion

BYOD policies can provide significant benefits to companies and employees alike by enabling employees to work from personally-owned devices. However, these programs also carry significant security risks that should be managed as part of BYOD policies and security controls.