BYOD has many benefits for business. Increased job satisfaction, improved efficiency and productivity along with flexibility and reduced overheads for business not needing to invest in the initial purchase of the devices along with ongoing upgrades and maintenance.

However, there’s a balance to be struck. Allowing employees and contractors access to company networks means business owners must consider potential security and information security issues. That’s where BYOD security must be considered in depth.

The essence of BYOD is that the employee owns and maintains their devices. Due to this, the business has far reduced control over the device when compared to devices owned by the business.

Business owners must address BYOD considerations before approving employees start making use of a BYOD program. High level considerations include commercial content and data will not be merged with personal data, people such as family members cannot access business data and finally, what is the process when an employee loses a device or leaves the business.

Whilst developing a BYOD policy, business should identify objectives of the initiative and include key staff/consultants from IT, HR and legal.

It is crucial that any policy is clear, and all people engaged with a BYOD program clearly understand the rules and requirements, and their obligations. Periodic audits should also be carried out to test the success of the program and ensure company data is maintained in a safe and secured manner in line with the policy, and introducing BYOD to your business must not introduce new security risks into an existing network.