FEATURE : BYOD
What makes a good BYOD policy ? With the influx of personal devices in the workplace and the unprecedented risk of data breach and malware , tightening
IT security at a company can seem like a daunting task . Just how difficult of a task is it ? We hear from industry specialists on how companies and employees are fashioning comprehensive
BYOD especially now that organisations have had to adopt work from home models .
In the wake of lockdown restrictions
imposed as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic , employees across Africa have been compelled to use their own PCs and mobile devices for business tasks whether their IT departments support them or not . And looking at how the pandemic brought businesses to a standstill overnight and with many organisations not even having a BYOD policy in place , managing and mitigating security risks associated with opening up your corporate network to personal devices can be tricky .
And while the rules in a BYOD policy often vary depending on a user ’ s role in the organisation , CIOs and the IT teams they lead have the responsibility of developing comprehensive BYOD policies . And with BYOD having garnered momentum by the work from home ( WFH ) model that most enterprises have implemented because of the imposed lockdown restrictions across many countries on the continent , industry experts warn enterprises that there is no one size fits all approach .
Business fears
James Hennah , Director – Security , BT Asia , Middle East and Africa , said with rapid advances in and adoption of mobile working and the BYOD trend , the workplace has progressively been advancing to centre more on how people connect digitally and less so about the bricks and mortar that make up an office building .
Hennah said this has certainly accelerated this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic and businesses needing to quickly adapt to work from home strategies in response to that following lockdown measures that were implemented .
“ One of the biggest fears for businesses is the theft of , or untoward access to , confidential data – and this fear is intensified as business start adopting a digital , mobile and / or BYOD strategy . It certainly used to be simpler for businesses to protect devices within the traditional workplace or office , however , today business security controls must protect all employees and the sensitive data that they access , across a seemingly plethora of locations , devices and content types ,” he said . “ Businesses should be putting serious clout into designing and implementing their own enterprise mobile management ( EMM ) adoption strategies – that incorporate processes for safe integration of BYOD and work from home ,” he said .
Work from home
Bethwel Opil , Enterprise Sales Manager , Kaspersky in Africa , said given the restrictions the COVID-19 outbreak has had on working from the office , it should be noted that the importance of bring your own device ( BYOD ) was largely instituted prior to the pandemic .
Crafting the best BYOD policy
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