The Benefits and Risks of BYOD

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) recently released a report on BYOD outlining the various risks and opportunities with the consumerization of IT (COIT). The report identifies four opportunities:

• Financial - increased productivity, reduced spending, increased customer satisfaction
• Staff - encouraged and engaged workforce, benefits to hiring, more opportunities for creativity
• Operational - staff working during off-hours, enhance virtual teams
• Data Management - with use of cloud storage, increased data interactions will increase data accuracy and data sharing

Despite these four areas of opportunities, there are costs to operating a successful BYOD program: through training as well as MDM programs, regulatory issues and issues with CIA (confidentiality, integrity and availability). With Absolute Manage for Mobile Devices provides support for BYOD.