Biz Features

10 Basically Baffling BYOD Blunders [INFOGRAPHIC]

by . October 28th, 2014

Bring-Your-Own-Device policies can be the reason for next data breach

Poorly enforced and ill-defined bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies necessarily lead to greater odds of a security breach. According to studies cited in the infographic below,  around “50% of companies with bring your own device policies have been the victims of a data breach”.

On the other hand, it’s rare that any company specifies or even enforces their BYOD policies, unless they are in an industry particularly sensitive to these kinds of issues.

Even in enterprises that do have explicit BYOD policies, enforcement can be spotty, if not outright lackadaisical. Dell recently put out this infographic on how to prevent the most common reasons for BYOD-related data breaches:

What BYOD policies do you have at work? When was the last time you did those things on the list? Comment below!

byodbehaviorsthatcreatesecurityrisks_full_v747

Top 10 BYOD Policy Risk Factors

10.) Unauthorized Apps

9.) Sharing Devices With Family

8.) Selling Old Devices

7.) Failure To Report Issues

6.) Using Public Wifi

5.) Never Testing Backed-up Data

4.) Transferring Files Onto Unauthorized Devices

3.) Using Personal Email for Work

2.) Unauthorized Physical Access

1.) Poor Handling of Passwords

 

More: Should The Fappening Change How We View Data Security?

The Reality of BYOD: It’s out of your hands

All of these are pretty common sense precautions, and most of us don’t need an infographic to tell us doing any of these can be a bad idea. On the other hand, I’ve been personally guilty of a couple of these points, and seriously doubt any of you haven’t bent the rules a bit yourselves.

Essentially, while BYOD policies are almost an expected perk in many industries – particularly when concerning creative work – they can also open a huge can of trust and data-breachy worms.

Avoiding these hazards boils down to two questions:

1.) How much do you trust your employees?

2.) How much are you prepared to lose?

If you don’t want to do away with a BYOD policy because you want to keep employees happy, or because you’re not comfortable with the cost of acquiring work-specific devices, there’s honestly not much you can do once employees take devices home.

What BYOD policies do you have at work? When was the last time you did those things on the list? Comment below!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Arthur Piccio manages YouTheEntrepreneur and has managed content for major players in the online printing industry. He was previously BizSugar's contributor of the week. His work has appeared multiple times on The New York Times' You're the Boss Small Business Blog. He enjoys guitar maintenance and reading up on history and psychology in his spare time.