In an era of enterprise mobility, employee flexibility and convenience in terms of working from remote locations and device usage has become a new norm. Although this definitely adds to their productivity and efficiency, at the same time, companies cannot ignore the threats and risks they pose to corporate information security. The influx of mobile devices and the plethora of platforms in the workplace is making things more complex for companies. Conditions get trickier when employees are allowed to use their own devices at work, whether in office premises or a remote location.
This blog will discuss why a company needs to make an informed decision about implementing a specific device ownership model. Let’s dive into a comparative analysis between corporate-owned devices and employee-owned devices from the viewpoint of information security.
Information, which can exist in any form – physical, tangible, electronic, or non-tangible, is a valuable asset to a company. As the term suggests, Information Security is a set of defined and organized tools and processes that are designed to protect sensitive corporate information from getting disrupted, stolen, modified, compromised, disclosed, corrupted, or destructed.
A part of information risk management and popularly known as InfoSec, it secures crucial information from unauthorized access, use, sharing, disclosure, or deletion. In case any unfortunate security incident takes place, InfoSec professionals are responsible to mitigate the impact of the threat or the risk involved. The three famous pillars of InfoSec are Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. Apart from these 3 aspects, there are 3 more pillars that offer further strength to the InfoSec program, these are Accountability, Authenticity, and Non-Repudiation.
The simple fundamental that underlines the InfoSec program is that sensitive corporate information must be kept intact – it cannot be accessed, transferred, or modified without authorized permission. The major types of infosec are Application Security, Cloud Security, Cryptography, Infrastructure Security, Incident Response, and Vulnerability Management.
Also Read: How your knowledge workers can benefit from corporate-owned devices
Information can be worth a trillion dollars to a company and losing it can cause irreparable damage to enterprises. Unmanaged and unorganized information lying in silos can be vulnerable to different kinds of threats like computer/server malfunction, natural disasters, or physical theft. InfoSec is a crucial consideration for IT security specialists who monitor and prevent risks to application security, data security, network security, physical security, and computer security.
As a matter of fact, modern companies mostly rely on corporate e-information stored within computers, information and software systems, mobile devices, smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices used by employees, stakeholders, and business leaders. As companies shifted their interest from physical assets to the digital landscape, threats to information took a shape of cyber threats. The increasing cyber-security attacks can cause major damage to sensitive and critical information assets.
On top of that, the growing risks of data breaches have brought the importance of having a sophisticated data protection plan to the forefront.
Also Read: How your IT team can effectively drive a corporate-owned device policy
Stated below are a few of the reasons why companies should start caring about Information Security:
As maximum corporate information, which is sensitive and critical in nature, lies within the smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices used for enterprise purposes, it is crucial to understand who owns and uses these devices, how they use these devices, and who owns the information. It also invites the question about how much control should the company have over the information stored in these devices, which are intended to be used from office premises as well as from remote locations.
Also, what kind of security and usage policies are introduced to protect company information from unauthorized access and data abuse, and how are they implemented. Let’s look at the risks posed by employee-owned devices and how having a corporate-owned device policy with a robust MDM solution in place can be a better idea for organizations.
With the growing need for flexibility, convenience, and agility, employees are demanding to use their own devices at work. Although employee-owned devices are doing the rounds, companies must not ignore the costs it might pay for allowing the employees to use their own devices to carry on their daily works. The security risks are doubled when employees use their own mobile devices from remote locations or while telecommuting.
Check out the following risks that employee-owned devices can pose to information security:
It is true that several of these loopholes can be covered by implementing a well-planned BYOD policy, but companies are definitely treading that path at a slower-than-expected pace owing to the security complications and management ordeal. On top of that, as companies cannot own and regulate the usage of these employee-owned devices, the possibilities of malware and virus attacks are always present on the devices. The infection can be passed along to the company IT system when they access the devices.
Wherein employee-owned devices invariably drive productivity and flexibility, it cannot be achieved at the cost of important company information being jeopardized. Having a corporate-owned device ownership model pays off in multiple terms while fostering productivity, security, flexibility, efficiency, and precision – all at once! A corporate-owned device policy powered with a perfect MDM solution can be the ultimate answer to maintaining a flawless information security system across the organization at all levels.
Learn More: The 5 unfailing business benefits provided by corporate-owned device policy
When it comes to choosing an all-rounder Mobile Device Management Software that comes with all the relevant and unique security features and management capabilities, ensure to go for the best with Scalefusion MDM.
Sources
1. juniperresearch.com
2. cpomagazine.com
3. cybersecurityventures.com
4. symantec.com