The BYOD model saves costs and is, for that reason, quickly becoming the preferred tech infrastructure approach for SMBs. When employees bring their own devices, they benefit from IT familiarity and ease of use. On the other hand, you eliminate the costs of IT asset acquisition and ownership.
Despite these benefits, the security risks from a BYOD mode of operation could be severe enough to sink your entire business. The right managed IT services provider in San Diego can maximize your BYOD adoption and eliminate its risks.
What Are the Security Risks in a BYOD Strategy?
Hard to evaluate and monitor vulnerabilities
The personal smartphone, computers, and tablets that employees bring to work could be a significant source of data leakage. That is because most of the time, the security strategies from the IT department fail to cover these devices when it comes to firewalls, patch management, backups, and scanning. That leaves the devices vulnerable even to a ‘newbie hacker’s experimentations.’
Cyberphysical security issues
The flash drives that your employees bring to work for storage and file sharing, for instance, could be the point of compromise. These drives, if they have passed through the hands of a malicious person, could be carrying the virus that will take your business down. Do you have these devices checked and scanned before being allowed into your business premises?
Too many people get access to a device
Taking a computer to and from home significantly increases the number of people that have access to it. And a few clicks behind it, someone can be able to see saved passwords, browser history, new email messages, and other loopholes that can be explored for:
- Stealing data physically
- Phishing and social engineering scams
- Malware attacks
- DoS and DDoS attacks
- Cryptojacking
Devices can get lost and fall into the wrong hands
What happens when an employee gets mugged on the way home? Here is a probable scenario: the thief sells the equipment to a computer guy how may know his way around passwords. What they find after that will be a cyber-jackpot of your company’s credentials, heaven forbid.
Ways to Strengthen Your BYOD Security
What you can do to prevent such a scenario is to enlist help from an experienced managed IT services provider in San Diego. Managing a BYOD IT infrastructure model has often proven too complex and challenging for a lean internal IT team. We can help to save costs and resolve all your threats and vulnerabilities from the BYOD approach.
How to enjoy BYOD and not drown in cybersecurity incidences
- Employees must have strong and regularly updated passwords
- End users should only connect their devices to trusted networks
- They should periodically back up their data and update OS and applications
- Employees must be informed never to store passwords on the device
These are some of the many BYOD security best practices for an organization. At Exedeo, we will formulate a strategy that best addresses the security concerns of your business. We will then help with implementation, which is often the most challenging part. Contact us for the best in class managed IT services in San Diego.