(25)What is BYOD? List down advantages and emerging threats of BYOD

Answer:
  • BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) refers to business policy that allows employees to use their preferred computing devices, like smart phones and laptops for business purposes.
  • It means employees are welcome to use personal devices (laptops, smart phones, tablets etc.) to connect to the corporate network to access information and application.


Advantages of BYOD
 
(1)Satisfied Employees:
  • Employees prefer to use their own devices for work.
  • BYOD also reduces the number of devices an employee has to handle.

(2)Lower IT budgets:
  • Organizations need not spend on IT devices since employees would be using their own personal devices.




(3)Lower IT support:
  • IT department does not have to provide dedicated support for device maintenance.

(4)Benefit of new Technologies:
  • Generally, employees tend to procure devices with latest technologies. This improves productivity of the employees and overall growth of business.
(5)Increased employee efficiency:
  • Use of own device enhances the efficiency of employees.
  • In an organization provided devices, employees have to learn and there is a learning curve involved in it.


Emerging BYOD Threats

(1)Network Risks:
  • Network security risks increases when BYOD is implemented.
  • As BYOD permits employees to carry their own devices (smart phones, laptops for business use), the IT practice team is unaware about the number of devices being connected to the network. 
  • If a virus hits the network and all the devices connected to the network need be scanned, it is probable that some of the devices would miss out on this routine scan operation.

(2)Device Risks:
  • It is normally exemplified and hidden in ‘Loss of Devices’.
  • A lost or stolen device can result in an enormous financial and reputational embarrassment to an organization as the device may hold sensitive corporate information. 
  • With easy access to company emails as well as corporate intranet, company trade secrets can be easily retrieved from a misplaced device.


(3)Application Risks:
  • It is normally exemplified and hidden in ‘Application Viruses and Malware’.
  • Majority of employees’ phones and smart are not t protected by security software. 
  • Risk has been increased due to increase in mobile vulnerabilities.
  • In case of BYOD, responsibility of device security is not clear i.e. the organization or the user.

(4)Implementation Risks:
  • It is normally exemplified and hidden in ‘Weak BYOD Policy’.
  • Weak policy fails to educate the user, thereby increasing vulnerability to various threats.