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What is Byoa? (Bring Your Application)
Bring your own device (BYOD) was an initial step to increasing employee flexibility; its next entrepreneur contributor phase, Bring your own application (BYOA), now allows employees to utilize their own software for sharing files, instant messaging, and conference calling instead of their employer's.
What is the Issue With Byoa in the Enterprise?
BYOA seems like an attractive proposition, giving employees the flexibility and autonomy they require to work at their own pace with apps they find most helpful - but as with BYOD, this practice creates some challenges for companies today.
BYOA offers employees a flexible solution and allows them to work across various apps from one environment.
According to analysts, an average employee uses 36 cloud services daily in their Amanda Breen collaboration or document-sharing tasks; by expanding this approach, BYOA could increase this figure dramatically and lead to staff working across hundreds of apps daily, increasing the risk Amanda Breen that information may become lost in transit.
BYOA poses not only an imminent risk to data itself but also to general security.
IT departments may find it hard to govern how business data is accessed or stored within this environment, and businesses cannot know whether their employees' apps meet regulatory standards or offer Company Exit adequate protection of personal information.
Poorly planned BYOA deployments could create an unorganized mess of apps dotted throughout an enterprise containing sensitive data that IT teams cannot effectively protect or monitor.
Why Should Companies Invest in Byoa (Bring Your Own Device)?
With the environmental risks BYOA poses, one may ask why businesses do not ban it entirely from the workplace.
Unfortunately, companies simply cannot stop employees from accessing their preferred apps at work.
Companies faced similar security and information management concerns when the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend took hold since many could no longer prevent users from accessing applications via devices of their choice.
But it can provide great opportunities to secure 27-year-old Goldman Sachs employee workforces by encouraging BYOA.
Employees have used cloud-based applications on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops at work, whether businesses like it or not.
Everyone seems to favor digital apps - whether sharing East Williamsburg documents via Dropbox, working together in Google Docs, or communicating through Slack; all employees remain reluctant to forgo these tools when working.
Secure the BYOA Environment
An effective strategy for mitigating any negative side-effects associated with BYOA is ensuring employees have access to applications within your enterprise that meet their requirements.
Employees of today's millennial-dominated marketplace do not tolerate compromise regarding types of entrepreneur technology; around 8 out of every 10 working millennials claim they would turn to unapproved applications if necessary.
Solving some of the issues related to BYOA and shadow IT requires understanding your employees' needs and assessing them.
Some enterprises have created their own app directory of trusted apps so employees can make informed decisions when making software choices at work.
An app directory effectively gives staff control over their app usage without giving complete freedom and unbridled control over what apps are installed and downloaded on devices.
Since 2007, BYOD (bring your own device) policies have become widespread throughout most industries - save for HIPAA-compliant hospitals where regulations require higher levels of oversight. BYOD strategy mandates the use of any employee-owned device while security precautions must also be put in place in case of theft or loss; however, such policies don't outline how information on said devices will be shared, used, managed, and utilized by these devices or by employees.
At stake are high-risk exposure to viruses and malware, the consequences for data security, employee abuse, and employee neglect.
Forty percent of IT departments believe data leakage occurs through file sharing apps like Dropbox, Evernote, Skype, or Google Drive being unknowingly utilized without their knowledge; moreover, 46% do not feel confident their mobile security system will adequately secure corporate data.
Why Do Employees Bring Their Own Devices to Work?
BYOA (bring your own apps) is an emerging trend where employees use mobile devices or laptops for work tasks using apps from app stores such as the Google Play Store, iTunes App Store, or Android Marketplace or cloud services like Dropbox - not necessarily approved by an employer - that employee downloads themselves.
Related:-Developing Software Solutions with a User-Centric Perspective
BYOA (bring your own apps) is an increasingly common term among companies to describe employees building apps independently since accessing resources such as Android SDK.
Google SDK has made it easier for employees to complete the development of these projects themselves.
Bring Your Own App: 6 Things You Need to Know
Ten years ago, employees used desktops with IT-approved applications; BYOD (bring your own device) came into being when smartphones and tablets started appearing in offices nationwide.
BYOA or "bring-your-own apps") has now taken the forefront as employees opt for more manageable and better-designed applications to share files, conduct email marketing campaigns, design layouts, and do much more.
BYOA allows employees to choose the tools that will best support them for their jobs; however, this poses both security risks and IT nightmares; Employees using mobile apps or cloud services without control over how data is stored, accessed, and utilized are among those most at risk.
Learn six practical tips to maximize the use of BYOA software solutions within your business.
- Your employees need to be educated on BYOA policies at work. Your company needs a BYOA Policy that balances security concerns and staff's desire to use tools they find helpful, educating your staff members about dangers associated with unapproved apps and which information may or may not be stored outside internal systems.
- Locate and understand which apps your employees are utilizing. Understanding why individual staff members choose particular applications is also vitally important - often seen when BYOA programs roll out new hires using specific applications, once we see one employee using something more widely used by several others. Understanding why an app has reached critical mass requires asking employees which tools and apps they utilize while speaking to managers about which tools or apps may have become popular among their colleagues (perhaps managers could themselves use some).
- Communicate with providers of popular applications. Establishing relationships with vendors who supply applications allows companies to take advantage of business-friendly features like administrative control over signing in and security policy enforcement, as well as directory services integration and integrations between apps. Consumer-based BYOA applications may even benefit enterprise and small business use.
- Control the administration of all your apps to enjoy an effortless experience. Most enterprise-level cloud apps feature some directory service to connect IT with existing employee passwords - making their use more straightforward for employees who can keep using one username/password across apps, giving IT control of these services.
- Create an app directory that people can use: In response to BYOA, many companies are developing their own application directories as a strategy against it. Gartner estimates that by 2017, 25 percent will offer company-approved apps through an internal store - this helps decrease "rogue behavior" or when employees download apps not approved by management while making it more straightforward for staff members to find quality applications quickly and efficiently.
- Feeling overwhelmed by costs? No worries; most employee apps have already been paid for by employees themselves or reimbursed to companies. By consolidating user usage into corporate accounts and sharing costs among multiple accounts, costs per user could decrease significantly; increased productivity gains will more than balance out any increases.
What Can Internal Communicators Do to Help the Organization Overcome the Problem of Rogue Applications?
Facilitate a Cross-functional Approach
Internal communicators play an essential role within organizations as connectors, facilitators, and communicators - they bridge divisions between departments and employees to determine their needs for ease of use, communicate to leadership about necessary governance/data security practices as well and understand their employees' technology preferences for optimal data protection.
The Government of Canada
With a comprehensive understanding of security and employee needs, an effective governance program can be created for your organization.
Communicate to employees which information should be stored safely outside the company systems.
Evernote and other consumer apps that provide admin consoles for business users offer opportunities to formalize relationships between app developers and business users and put into effect sign-in procedures, security protocols, and integrations that make sense for both parties.
Directory of Apps That Are Approved
Numerous organizations already maintain an approved list of apps available freely via the intranet to employees to decrease the chances of employees using unapproved ones.
It is crucial to reduce risks related to employees using any unapproved applications on an employee device.
Enterprise Apps
Gartner projects that 25% of companies will own enterprise apps by 2017. Enterprise apps provide organizations with an effective means for controlling mobile device adoption and can boost productivity by 34%.
Today, nearly three-quarters (3/5) of employees utilize apps related to work-related tasks; one-quarter use enterprise apps explicitly aimed at their department.
BYOA is Not Going Anywhere
Apps from app stores and cloud-based applications provide organizations with a great way to stay current with technology, avoid their IT and security architecture from becoming outmoded, increase productivity, and save costs.
By engaging employees through internal communications campaigns on the benefits of “bring your own application” (BYOA) and ensuring it becomes part of company culture rather than hidden behind closed doors - you will ensure it can prevent employees from going off track later on.
Firms should implement formal policies regarding mobile device usage at work. One such type is bring your device, which outlines which mobile devices employees may bring from home and use (if any) in accessing company systems/networks.
In this article, we'll look at what such an initiative should include and its structure.
What is Covered by a Byod Policy?
Firms require BYOD technology describing which devices may or may not access their network and policies to ensure non-approved devices don't accidentally get connected by mistake.
Furthermore, security protocols must be implemented to protect any personal information stored on mobile phones.
Risks of Damage to Reputation
Imagine this. An employee opens an email that contains a file containing client contact info and saves it onto their phone, which could then be misused, sold, leaked, and made public if lost or stolen - an event that must be reported immediately to both the Information Commissioner's Office as well as all parties on their mailing list to avoid potential financial and reputational penalties as a result of its existence.
Devices Are Accepted
After an audit, you must determine what devices should be included or excluded from BYOD policies.
This should typically be determined device by device; starting at zero tolerance may seem straightforward, but in practice, this approach could hinder employees rather than help them when performing specific tasks leading to decreased morale and satisfaction at work; total bans could even prove counterproductive as it's often tricky enforcing such policies with weak security controls in place.
Level Two - Approved Devices
Allows you to select devices based on their software operating system (for instance, only iOS and Android devices are allowed) or physical characteristics for easier management and access control.
However, employees without coverage might experience hardship without them; managing new models is difficult due to being introduced regularly.
Any Device Can Be Used at Level 3
"Plug and play" allows any device to be "plugged in," the opposite of zero tolerance; any device can be added at any time, allowing employees to plug their own devices without restrictions and the company not needing to maintain an updated list.
Alternative Options
Some companies are increasingly shifting away from BYOD policies that enforce zero tolerance for personal devices in favor of providing their employees with mobile phones as the preferred form of technology use.
Private Versus Business Use
Employees typically utilize BYOD devices both professionally and personally, often at the same time.
Employees need their company to ensure that any personal data stored on these devices won't be accessible via device monitoring tools. At the same time, employers seek to secure confidential corporate and client data visible on these devices. Employers should also recognize that employees may use them (for both professional and personal purposes), in some instances even including members of their immediate families as users of these devices.
Wireless Security
Wireless login is the fastest and most straightforward way to securely connect devices to a wireless network.
Yet, many companies give employees wireless keys without realizing they may use them on personal and company devices.
One way of protecting devices is by creating an extremely robust wireless key. For optimal device protection, the wireless key should be hard for people to memorize and only be entered by authorized members of an IT support team or another designated individual, thus enabling easy device level control to be maintained easily; however, this approach could take considerable time depending on how large or complex an organization may be.
Robust network hardware solutions will allow more robust solutions to create access control lists for specific devices that an organization must approve and register before connecting.
This enables time zone control as well as auditing.
Registration of Devices
Mac and Windows network operating software versions contain security tools that allow administrators to maintain a list of "approved" devices on the network, with each unit registered similarly to physical hardware.
While this approach may help control access, blocking unwanted visitors, it does little good when one or more connecting devices have been lost or stolen.
Mobile Device Management (MDM)
MDM provides a more secure method of device security. This service may be offered by third-party service providers or network operating software; its levels range from simple device registration up to wiping corporate data entirely, and when employees opt to “bring their own device” (BYOD), their consent must also be given for any mobile device management software used.
Employees must consent to use MDM software for monitoring devices and their activities and geolocation, if applicable.
Furthermore, employees will require information regarding what happens with personal information stored on devices that become disabled or lost/stolen if MDM is implemented successfully by businesses; users will find implementation simple yet highly secure from both viewpoints; businesses can perform other operations remotely such as blocking/wiping them remotely or tracking down lost/stolen devices remotely if applicable.
Data Encryption
BYOD policies alone do not offer enough security; all confidential/personal data must be encrypted before being uploaded into an electronic document, spreadsheet, or spreadsheet-type solution such as Dropbox.
Encryption involves more than setting it as a read-only mode on an Excel sheet or Word doc. There must also be safeguards in place that ensure its safe transport from the point of origination through storage to the destination point.
Companies must identify what information about individuals is transferred between devices, conduct risk analyses to assess any likelihood that these files could leak into the public domain, and then use appropriate encryption measures to secure this confidential/personal data.
Consideration of Other Issues
- Device password protection: Each BYOD must be safeguarded with a password or pin upon boot up, locking itself after an inactivity period if not in use or locking itself again if the password/pin is entered incorrectly.
- Mislaid devices: As part of BYOD, employees should know whom to contact should their device become lost, including what actions can be taken if data becomes encrypted (i.e., may it have been erased?).
- Cost: Firms may agree or not to cover certain charges associated with mobile devices used for business, as well as replacement costs if any are lost, stolen, or damaged during use.
- Acceptable use policy: Firms should ensure their acceptable use policy includes BYOD devices in its coverage.
- Rooted/jailbroken devices should never be permitted as part of BYOD programs; to protect these devices from becoming compromised and compromising their functionality. A strict policy must be established to prevent these from becoming infiltrated with malware/rootkits/jailbreaks etc.
- Storage media: To effectively address storage media needs for their firm, firms should outline their approach to encryption or whether data can be stored.
BYOD Policy Implementation
“Bring your own device” (BYOD) is often added as a supplement to acceptable internet use, email, and social media policy.
By default, it applies to company devices; employees can opt in or out as desired.
- Opt-out: Employees who decline to join the BYOD program will be prohibited from using personal mobile devices at work.
- Opt-in: Agreeing to the BYOD policy. In this case, the device must be registered with the network and, if necessary, with the mobile device management services.
Our summary presents our four-step method for developing and implementing BYOD policies.
Four Steps for Defining and Implementing BYOD
Audit devices and usage
- Which devices can I connect to the internet?
- What are their access rights?
- What are the applications they use?
- What information should be stored?
The Second Level of BYOD
Determine the level at which BYOD will be implemented -
- No devices
- List of approved candidates
- All/any devices
- Define which mobile applications are available.
BYOD Policy - Step Three
- Write and formulate the BYOD Policy.
- Change the network security infrastructure and add any extra services you may need (such as MDM).
- Consider whether additional security tools, like data encryption software, are required.
- Define a deadline for implementing your policy and ensure you communicate it.
Step four - Implementation Date
- Remove any devices currently in use and ensure they do not contain data.
- Register approved devices.
- Sign BYOD by employees who have such devices.
What Can We Do to Help?
- Perform a security/information audit of corporate/client data and who and what accesses this information
- Determining a BYOD policy
- Implementing a BYOD policy and training staff
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Compliance with GDPR demands that your employer (the data controller) abide by all its rules.
Should there be a security breach on any device belonging to employees, proof must be shown of how all personal data has been secured, deleted, or controlled effectively - something BYOD policies can help achieve.
