To cut costs and increase productivity, employers are encouraging their workers to link their personal smartphones to company networks, and both parties sign on without thinking through what they’re doing to their privacy and data security, experts said.
The policy is called BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device, but the tech geeks who set up the systems call it a “huge headache,” said Jim Schriver, Director of New Technologies at Black Box Network Services.
In the early days of smartphones, Schriver said, businesses with a need for mobile e-mail would give out corporate-controlled BlackBerries that were on a “closed” loop with the company’s devices, which let bosses both monitor them, wipe them if they’re lost or stolen, operate them remotely and battle viruses or malware.
But since the advent of the iPhone and the rise of Android, employers realize that they can cut costs by having their employers bring the devices they already have from home and hook them up to the central network. But this places the company’s networks — and the sensitive data they contain — at risk from the dangers of the Internet.
Which leads to some pretty important questions for both sides.
“Whose device is it? Who pays for it if it is lost or stolen? Who owns the information on the device?” Shriver said. “If the information is mixed — both personal pictures/e-mails and work files or e-mail — what impact does that have on how you use or secure the device?”
More bad news for bosses: The long-term savings might not add up.
“While BYOD programs can reduce costs, they typically do not,” said Gartner, a tech industry analyst. “As businesses look to drive ever more capability to the mobile device, the costs of software, infrastructure, personnel support and related services will increase over time. Once companies start including file sharing, business applications and collaboration tools, the costs to provide mobile services go up dramatically.”