Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is basically the act of allowing your employees to use their own devices to access your company system and data. The trouble is, that makes every IT support company in Sydney and beyond worry about the data security implications. Will your employee constantly keep up with necessary software and security updates? Will they make sure the virus protection is as current as possible? What if your employee loses their device or it gets stolen? And what happens when data is entered and updated on different devices; will there be consistent back-ups to ensure accuracy across all systems?

There are so many problems with allowing your staff to use their own devices, you would be forgiven for worrying about whether it is worth it or not.

Benefits of Allowing BYOD

There are benefits, however, and two of the major ones are employee satisfaction and cost savings. With staff being able to use personal devices to access work data at any time, they feel more at home and are more productive. And as a company, you are saving money by not purchasing these devices outright at the outset, as well as not shelling out for upgrades and ongoing support. Additionally, there are benefits in increased job efficiency, as the employee will always have the correct device on hand at any time, which also gives them the flexibility to work from anywhere.

The trouble is, all these benefits can mask the real danger that IT support firms in Sydney are trying to alert companies to. IT security in Sydney and throughout Australia is something that everyone should be aware of so that all companies comply with the Privacy Act 1988. Any sensitive data that is accessed from any of your employees’ devices will need to be kept as securely as it is on your internal machines.

Data Protection

As a company, what can you do in order to keep your data safe? The best way is to create a complete set of rules that you can ensure all employees abide by. Then, in an audit or during suspected leaks, you can assure authorities that the data has been protected adequately, or in the case of loss, any sensitive information can be deleted if necessary.

Here are some issues to consider:

• Employees will be using their personal phone and potentially merging work data with personal data. In this case, you will have no control over what can or should be deleted in an emergency; you need to be able to clearly differentiate between your data and that of your employee.
• The dangers of family members accidentally getting hold of sensitive data when using the same device.
• What to do with the employee’s access should they resign.

At all times, you and the employee should be aware of the security aspects and how using this device should not be responsible for introducing vulnerabilities into your work infrastructure.

If you would like to know more about the risks you face every day by letting your employees use their own devices, then you need IT support in Sydney. Contact us at CustomTec today to learn more about how to make sure all your data is safe today and for the foreseeable future.