Part A

How to adopt a BYOD policy securely

 

• There is a wealth of technologies available to ensure the safety of employee-owned devices. To ensure appropriate (and safe) BYOD use inside a company, a clear policy and broad acceptance are required. To mitigate the risk related with BYOD, I suggest the following:
• Establish distinct networks for staff devices: Employees often bring their gadgets to work and use them for business-related activities, especially their mobile phones, in order to connect to free Wi-Fi and avoid utilizing their data plans throughout the day.
• Educate your employees about security: The overwhelming majority of BYOD security risks are exposed inadvertently. Unbeknownst to the employee, their personal phone may be infected with a virus. When they connect to a network, the infection may spread unintentionally to other computers, presenting a significant security concern.

 

BYOD Risks:

• Data Leakage - When employees use personal devices to access business email or protected payroll information, data leakage is a risk.
• Inadequate Management - There are dangers involved with losing control of any device, whether it is used by an individual or the business. When an endpoint leaves your workplace, it's impossible to predict whether it will be utilized on unauthorized open wifi networks or will be lost or stolen.
• Infection with Malware - The overwhelming majority of mobile phone users are clueless that their system has been infected with malware. They may not read the terms of service on new applications or think carefully about giving up too many rights when downloading new material.
• Combining Individual and Business Use - Combining individual and business use is an inevitable consequence of BYOD. You have no control over whether employees shop on hacked websites or lose their laptops.

Countermeasures:

• BYOD policies should be transparent about who owns apps and data, as well as which applications are permitted or banned.
• Encrypted, password-protected data should be transmitted exclusively for company-mandated purposes.
• A review of your existing capabilities will assist in identifying and closing these gaps, ensuring the success of your BYOD initiative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part B

Reply to Classmate

 Hello there,

I agree with lasha may that security issues are very concerning, and this is the main reason why many companies have not adopted BYOD. As a result, this is the primary shortcoming of BYOD. Employee devices will not have the same level of protection as an organization's equipment, and any security measures installed on a personal device will be insufficient to defend against corporate data theft or network access. Furthermore, personal devices often lack adequate authentication, since robust authentication methods may be a barrier when utilized for non-work-related activities. They may only use a single-factor authentication method, which is almost always a password, posing a significant danger to businesses. Even if devices support biometric authentication, they nearly always include a password as a backup, which hackers may easily break.

To mitigate the dangers associated with BYOD, a corporate policy should be implemented. Policy development is critical for a company using BYOD. However, prior to adopting a policy, stakeholders – including workers – should be consulted. Increased staff training is a critical step in mitigating the hazards connected with BYOD. The bulk of cybersecurity incidents are the result of trusted workers, with the majority being the result of human mistake. Personnel must read and sign the company's Bring Your Own Device Policy to improve their understanding of the subject and the dangers connected with it, some of which they may easily avoid.

 

Outline

Your company is exploring the possibility of allowing employees to use their own mobile devices for their work and connect to the internal company network. In your role as the CSO, the CEO has asked you to brief her on what steps can be taken to implement a BYOD policy while reducing the overall risk to the organization as much as possible.

Write your talking points for the CEO, including the associated risks with BYOD, potential security countermeasures, and your initial thoughts on how you would test their implementation to assess the overall risk level. This can be in paragraph form or a bulleted list of your talking points.