Good Case Study About A Research On Byod

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Introduction

The introduction of different kinds of gadgets demand being ‘online’ in order to maximize its function as well as the application installed within it. Social media networks such as Facebook , Twitter and Instagram force a gadget-hooked individual to remain connected on the Internet to get live feeds on what is happening among their networks. This behavior is not only prevalent within the four corners of the home of a gadget-hooked person but also carried to schools, offices and various public places. Coffee shops install Wi-Fi to further attract customers to avail of their products while surfing the net for free. Public transportations such as busses install hotspots in order to cater the public’s need to remain online while traveling to and from their destination. Employees bring their gadgets and devices within their workstation so that they can update their LinkedIn profiles or Facebook timeline using the company’s network. Because of this demand, some organizations allow their employees and guests to hook to their network using their devices at the company’s risk.
This research explores the benefits of bring your own device (BYOD) to an organization, at the same time; briefly investigate the risk accompanied with such set-up. This study also showcases alternatives on how to manage such growing demands from the employees as well as possible security controls that a company must consider to manage the risk that the BYOD set-up can bring.

Benefits of BYOD

According to research, BYOD increases employee’s productivity and innovation. Employees tend to become more comfortable with the technical environment set-up within their gadgets, thus, increasing their response time to job request and fulfills more task in such kind of set-up. This kind of arrangement lessens the concerns and requirements from the IT staff and they can focus more on responding to critical IT issues. BYOD also increases the engagement of the employees even after office since they can access their emails and work that requires immediate attention, endorsement and approval. Data are accessible therefore delivering more work without the location constraint. From the IT cost perspective, BYOD lessens the expenditure requirement of the company as they allow the employees to bring in their own devices and utilize it for work .

BYOD Risks and Security Controls

Bring Your Own Device set-up subject an organization to security when implemented. There is a chance of exposure of the company information stored within the employee’s device if they utilize the gadget within a public network. A third party application or a potential hacker may get thru the employee’s device or mobile application and exploit this information . Both the company and the employee are on the risk of exposing its privacy as well as data mapping conflict when personal gadgets get through either an organization’s network or a public Wi-Fi. Some organizations have explicitly defined its BYOD policy and such may cause dispute and compliance issue .
An organization must define security controls in order to address both the BYOD requirements of its employees and the risk and vulnerability requirements of a company. Essentially, an organization must define its controls in order to protect and provide countermeasure against risks of adopting BYOD. A company must have access and identification control such as implementing strong password, isolating networks dedicated to BYOD and encrypting data collected within the device. It is also critical for companies to identify securities for application. This application security procedure include downloading of business software from controlled environment, preventing employees from downloading untrusted application and determining malicious applications .

BYOD Implementation

SAP employs BYOD approach. The company proposes to use company-owned gadgets or personal mobile devices. The company governs the BYOD set-up through its mobile device administration solution called Alfaria for a secured implementation. As of the moment, the company has one hundred percent enrollment to such environment and generates productive working hours and lessens application development cycle by 92 percent .
Meanwhile, in case there is a demand for BYOD approach within our company, I will recommend such set-up among our employees with clearly defined IT governance, risk and control as well as security practices. Our employees need to understand the implication and the stake of such set-up, therefore, everyone must display responsibility and accountability when adopting the BYOD approach.

Works Cited

Gajar, P., Ghosh, A., & Rai, S. (2013). Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Security Risks and Mitigating Strategies. Journal of Global Research in Computer Science, 62-70.
Greenspan, D. (2012). The risks of implementing 'Bring Your Own Device' in the work place. PDP Journal, vol.3, issue 2, 6-9.
Navetta, D. (2012). The Legal Implications of BYOD. ISSA Journal, 16-21.
Pillay, A., Nham, E., Diaki, H., Senanayake, S., & Deshpande, S. (2013). Does BYOD increase risks or drive benefits? Melbourne: University of Melbourne.
SAP. (2012). BYOD @ SAP. SAP AG.