Do you know what a BYOD policy is?

Before the pandemic broke out, there was a need for companies to implement BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies, allowing employees to access company systems from their own smartphones and laptops. However, as with the rest of the digital transformation that took place during the pandemic, the rapid rise of home-based work gave additional impetus to the implementation of these policies.

Now that several Danish companies are investigating the future possibilities of hybrid working, it is important that you also consider and focus on the BYOD policy together with the company's authorization and access measures to ensure that security is given a high enough priority. Because it's possible that it can make life easier for your employees when they work on their own devices (and who hasn't checked their work email on their phone?), but it also poses a security risk - and at the very least, your company has to to be familiar with.

First, personal devices connected to a home network are far more vulnerable to viruses, as you cannot regulate security updates or the installation of anti-virus software on private computers. This leaves the door wide open for potential hacker attacks and security breaches that put your company's sensitive data at risk - especially if your employees end up storing sensitive company data on their hard drives or in their personal cloud solutions, rather than on your shared platform.

Personlige enheder bliver også oftere væk eller stjålet. Og i betragtning af, at virksomheder ikke uden videre kan angive adgangskode- eller godkendelsespolitikker på personlige computere eller smartphones, er der en risiko for, at dataene på enhederne kan være ubeskyttede og meget let tilgængelige. 

Today, several companies mostly choose to accept it as a risk, because it is difficult to implement hybrid work without a device the employee can work from – and not all companies can afford to equip all employees with a new work device. Employees have also gotten used to their setups at home, and some may be more comfortable leaving their work computer in the office and using their personal computer at home.

But fortunately, you can do a lot to ensure that you get a workforce that knows their own security responsibilities in their private homes. One of the measures is BYOD policies and a coordinated effort to train your employees in security. In this way, you ensure that they are aware of the risks and have been given clear instructions on how to protect their personal devices.

Another option is to enter into a partnership with a technology provider that focuses on security and can train your employees for you.

At Supporters, we take responsibility for your IT security in our full-service outsourcing concept. We take on the task as an external IT department, and ensure that all your employees feel prepared to be able to work safely from home.