BYOD 2.0 – A New Era in Mobile Security

Ad hoc polls of CISOs reveal that not many organizations have an official BYOD program. This lack of official programs in turn raises concerns about what data is going both out of and into the network. Because non-official devices are connected to the network and are drawing data from the corporate networks, CISOs are concerned about having no line of sight of that data and the resulting gap in security and until a BYOD solution is implemented.

The financial impact of BYOD is still an issue that organizations are struggling with. The looming question is: "Is it worth it for organizations to implement BYOD?"

It can be argued that there are benefits of outsourcing the cost of mobile devices to the employees; however, organizations must then implement controls and systems to protect the data and the enterprise. Because the cost of controls can easily run into large sums of money, organizations must determine whether it is really worth it to move forward with investing in a BYOD program and officially sanctioning employee devices to access corporate data.

While clear figures on the cost-benefits ratios are generally lacking, one department that may more be more willing to support BYOD is Finance. Another department is Human Resources because BYOD has the potential to create a more engaged employee.

Challenges that organizations face include evolving management technologies and a lack of the necessary and appropriate controls to protect the data. Finally, while organizations have controls over the devices, there is a growing trend to be more device agnostic and focus on the data.