The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a lot of trends that had been brewing in the business technology world. One of the most drastic ones is the immediate introduction of BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) into many businesses.
With remote work becoming the new normal, many employees have started using their personal laptops, tablets, and smartphones at work. While this adds a lot of flexibility to both workers and employers, it poses a serious cybersecurity threat for company information and personal information.
Here are five tips that you should follow if you want to keep your employee and company data secure while allowing for a flexible BYOD policy.
1.- Use Cloud Computing
Cloud computing allows employees to store and access files and data that is stored in the cloud. Long gone are the days of big filing cabinets and so are the days of relying on local servers.
An efficient cloud computing service can allow employees to work remotely by using their own devices to access software like Microsoft Office 365 directly from the cloud.
Not only is this more convenient for everyone, but it can minimize security threats by keeping everything in the cloud as opposed to a number of local servers.
2.- Perform Regular Backups
Data backup is one of those things that you don’t really think about until it’s too late. Whether your data is stored in the cloud or locally, make sure that you perform routine backups in order to prevent any potential catastrophes.
Allowing BYODs will increase the number of devices that have access to sensitive company and personal information, thus increasing the likelihood that a data breach could occur.
3.- Cybersecurity Employee Education
One of the hardest tasks of running a business is making sure all employees are on the same page. This is especially important for cybersecurity.
Since employees will be using their own devices for work, it is extremely important that they are all trained on cybersecurity issues.
This is a great time to develop a company-wide BYOD security policy with specific rules and guidelines that all employees should be expected to follow.
4.- Keep Track Of All BYODs
As mentioned, the risk of security breaches increases as the number of devices with access to sensitive information increases. A good BYOD policy will allow for flexible use of devices, but will also keep track of what devices have access to what information.
Not only is it important to keep a record of all BYOD devices, but it is also important to double-check that each employee only has access to the information they need. You will be minimizing your security risks by reducing the amount of information that is accessible to each BYOD.
5.- Offboard BYODs
Every good BYOD policy should include a thorough BYOD offboarding process. Whether it’s due to employee termination or whether that employee decided to buy a new device, you need to make sure that phased-out devices no longer have access to company information.
If your company uses cloud services, you will want to make sure that not only are all files removed from your employee’s BYODs, but also that all login information is wiped from the device as well.