The Risks and Benefits of Bring-Your-Own-Device Workplaces

More and more companies these days are letting employees use their personal devices for work. This trend is referred to as bring-your-own-device or BYOD. This can benefit both the company and the employee. Companies don’t have to spend as much money on computers, tablets, and phones if workers are bringing their own. And as workers are already familiar with their devices, it can drastically improve productivity.

The Risks of BYOD

There are some risks to embracing a BYOD work environment. Darragh Delaney, a columnist at
ComputerWorld, discusses this in a recent column. Delaney wrote that there are some IT risks to think about when letting personal devices to connect to your company’s network. The danger of being attacked by malware increases as the number of devices connected to a network increases. Particularly because a company cannot manage how much protection an employee has on their personal devices.

Company Information at Risk

Another aspect to consider when a company is deciding if you should allow employees to connect their devices to the network concerns information. When people leave the office, what information are they bringing out of the building with them? If they lose their device, private data about the company could be at risk. There are a couple answers to this. One, a company can create restrictions around what type of information can be stored on personal devices. Another idea is that a company could train their employees to better protect their devices.

The BYOD Trend

It is unlikely that the BYOD trend will fade, especially as more and more individuals have tablets and smartphones. If companies want to make use of the benefits of allowing employees to connect their devices, the thing to strive for then is more training around safely connecting and storing data on these devices.