With the advent of smartphones, tablets and other bring-your-own-devices in the corporate environment, IT administrators have been working hard to maintain network security while remaining flexible for the end users. On top of that, many of these BYO-devices, such as tablets and smartphones, are now able to create their own networks or hotspots, giving your IT department another acronym to manage: bring-your-own-network (BYON).
The risk with BYON is that these portable networks are by definition sharing data with other devices on that network, which means it falls outside of your company’s IT security scope. Your employees may be using corporate email or accessing corporate data on their own devices, and if they’re using their own network, that data is passing through networks that may or may not be secure.
While your IT department can closely monitor and maintain your corporate network, the number of networks to manage and secure grows exponentially when an employee 1) brings their own device and 2) brings their own network. When an employee creates a mobile hotspot from their own phone that they brought to work, they are now using three separate networks at the same time–one is their cellular network, one is your corporate network and one is the network they just created. Now imagine just a handful of employees doing the same thing.
Because of the relatively new nature of BYOD and BYON, IT best practices that can be applied to these situations are still being formulated–and user education is certainly a good start. Some companies have even gone as far as to require employees sign contracts stating that they too are responsible for lost data.
If you don’t have an IT department that can closely manage the emerging technologies in your workplace, OAC Technology, a Minneapolis-based IT company, can help you lock down and maintain your Network Security. We can scan your network and make personalized recommendations for your business based on what we find. Contact us today to set up a free Network Security Audit.
