Government Technology Insider
  • About
  • State & Local
  • Civilian
  • Defense & IC
SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
  • Acquisition
  • AI & Data
  • Cybersecurity
  • CX
  • Digital Transformation
  • Hybrid Work
    • Work Smarter
  • Public Safety
  • Resources
    • Beyond Modernization
    • Technology Trends Shaping the Future of Government
    • World of Work
    • Your Digital Transformation Path Starts Here
    • The Frontlines of Customer Experience
    • Innovative Solutions for Connecting Agencies
    • Be Ready For What’s Next
Government Technology Insider
  • Acquisition
  • AI & Data
  • Cybersecurity
  • CX
  • Digital Transformation
  • Hybrid Work
    • Work Smarter
  • Public Safety
  • Resources
    • Beyond Modernization
    • Technology Trends Shaping the Future of Government
    • World of Work
    • Your Digital Transformation Path Starts Here
    • The Frontlines of Customer Experience
    • Innovative Solutions for Connecting Agencies
    • Be Ready For What’s Next
No Result
View All Result
Government Technology Insider
No Result
View All Result
Home Operations

BYOD Should Be A Right Not A Privilege: Enabling BYOD in Your Organization

by GTI Editors
March 6, 2013
in Operations
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Author: Scott Montgomery, Vice President, Public Sector Solutions, McAfee

I once worked for a woman whose notion of effort and productivity was extremely succinct:  “You can work a half-day every day you’re here, you just tell me which twelve you’re going to work.”  With the advent of tools and services available via your employee’s mobile devices, you may find that by enabling their demands for convenience, that twelve hours is exactly how much work they’ll put in.  If you are the lone voice of dissent, shouting to anyone who will listen about the dangers of mobile platforms, you’re going to be buried alive by your management and consumer demand. In a 2012 survey of approximately 4,000 young worldwide workers, a staggering 50% called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) a right rather than a privilege.

Below are a few ways you can start preparing your organization for the inevitable.

Knowledgably Reduce Your Surface Area
Achieving nirvana is not possible – you can’t support every device, manufacturer, carrier, and operating system, nor should you try to initially.  You may want to empower your work force to utilize their purchased devices, but it shouldn’t be at any cost.  Determine what you’re comfortable with from the standpoint of effort and risk – even if initially it’s only one specific device like one financial services firm recently did.  Communicate your thinking to the workforce and solicit feedback.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Make Some Decisions and Document Them
Except for laptops, the mobile productivity space is still wildly immature.  If you simply allow people to do whatever they want, you’ll quickly be living in a Gunfight at the OK Corral more than creating an effective mobile productivity policy.  Determine exactly what organizational data, applications, and services that you’ll make available to BYOD employees first.  Document what you picked and why.  Communicate your thinking to the workforce and solicit feedback.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Determine what risks are incurred by the communication vectors the BYO device will utilize (Bluetooth, browser, app, thin client) and then look to experts to help mitigate those risks cost-effectively.  It is essential to ensure you have secured the data that will remain on the device when it leaves your network’s control.

Make Your Lawyers Speak English
Your work force’s literacy level will quickly drop to roughly the equivalent of the world’s population in 1940 when asked to read and understand a BYOD agreement.  Perform training in plain English so that everyone (employees, HR, legal, IT) understands that the organization’s data on the BYO device is subject to protection by the organization.  Let’s be clear – what this means is utilizing the employee’s purchased carrier services to make changes to the device, it’s underlying operating system, and potentially the apps and data, up to and including accidental loss of employee personal information.  If the employee can’t buy into the additional risks for the BYOD reward, then they can’t access the organization’s BYO services.

By starting slowly, carefully documenting steps, and involving the work force in the process, you can get to the safe, productive BYO environment that your employees demand.

About the author: Scott Montgomery has been with McAfee since Fall of 2008. At McAfee, Scott runs worldwide government certification efforts, and works with the public sector teams and customers worldwide to design solutions to information security and privacy challenges using McAfee’s products and services or one of the more than 100 companies integrated with McAfee technology.

Tags: Bring Your Own DevicebyodBYOD best practiceBYOD Policiesendpoint securityfederal adoption of mobilityinformation assuranceMcAfeemobile productivity policyrisk management

RELATED POSTS

Contributed Articles

DMARC: A Critical Tool for State and Local Government Cybersecurity

June 21, 2022
IoT Devices
Security

As IoT Devices Put Government Agencies at Risk, Securing Endpoints Has Never Been More Important

March 11, 2021
The RSA Archer Summit 2020 Reinforces the Need for Risk Management and Collaboration
Digital Transformation

The RSA Archer Summit 2020 Reinforces the Need for Risk Management and Collaboration

September 25, 2020
Please login to join discussion

TRENDING NOW

  • Advana

    Meet Advana: How the Department of Defense Solved its Data Interoperability Challenges

    12108 shares
    Share 4843 Tweet 3027
  • Zero Trust Implementation and Success are Just Steps Away for Federal Agencies

    81 shares
    Share 32 Tweet 20
  • The FAA Modernizes Data Management to Accelerate Access and Manage Costs

    45 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • The Benefits of Automation for Constituent Identity Verification

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4

CONNECT WITH US

BECOME AN INSIDER

Get Government Technology Insider news and updates in your inbox.

Strategic Communications Group is a digital media company that helps business-to-business marketers drive customer demand through content marketing, content syndication, and lead identification.

Related Communities

Financial Technology Today
Future Healthcare Today
Modern Marketing Today
Retail Technology Insider
Today’s Modern Educator

Quick Links

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us

Become a Sponsor

Strategic Communications Group offers analytics, content marketing, and lead identification services. Interested?
Contact us!

© 2023 Strategic Communications Group, Inc.
Privacy Policy      |      Terms of Service

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Government Technology Insider
  • State & Local
  • Civilian
  • Defense & IC
  • Categories
    • Acquisition
    • AI & Data
    • Customer Experience
    • Cybersecurity
    • Digital Transformation
    • Hybrid Work
    • Public Safety
  • Contact Us