Mobile Device Security: Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) refers to the practice of performing work-related activities on personally owned devices. This practice guide provides an example solution demonstrating how to enhance security and privacy in Android and Apple phones and tablets used in BYOD deployments. 

Incorporating BYOD deployments into an organization can increase the opportunities and methods available to access organizational resources. For some organizations, the combination of traditional in-office processes with mobile device technologies enables portable communication approaches and adaptive workflows. For others, it fosters a mobile-first approach in which their employees communicate and collaborate primarily using their mobile devices. 

However, some of the features that make BYOD mobile devices increasingly flexible and functional also present unique security and privacy challenges to both organizations and device owners. The unique nature of these challenges is driven by the differing risks posed by the type, age, operating system (OS), and other variances in mobile devices. 

Enabling BYOD capabilities in the enterprise introduces new cybersecurity risks. Solutions that are designed to secure corporate devices and on-premises data do not provide an effective cybersecurity solution for BYOD. Finding an effective solution can be challenging due to the unique risks that BYOD deployments impose. Additionally, enabling BYOD capabilities introduces new privacy risks to employees by providing their employer a degree of access to their personal devices, opening up the possibility of observation and control that would not otherwise exist. 

To help organizations benefit from BYOD’s flexibility while protecting themselves from critical security and privacy challenges, this practice guide provides an example solution using standards-based, commercially available products and step-by-step implementation guidance.