If your company has opened its doors to the use of personal mobile devices, iPads and tablets for work purposes you are one of the many who are beginning to allow them into work. Productivity is enhanced if an employee is comfortable with the devices they are using. However, restricting them to particular business-only devices can thwart morale as well as productivity.
The trend for using personal devices is growing and every company owner needs to consider the risks. If you want to review a sample policy from the big boys, check out the Whitehouse website on this issue. While this may be overkill for your organization, it covers the basics. You may want to establish a minimum policy for your organization and you can discuss that with your IT support company as well.
At a minimum, review and establish the following items with your IT support technicians:
- Assess all areas of risk. Areas of risk include operating systems (viruses, malware, etc.), data, transmission, user identity, etc.
- Document all users and what specific devices they are using and the passwords. Should certain devices be prohibited in our network setting?
- Can you prevent company data from being downloaded onto a device?
- I am in a highly regulated industry. Can you protect the transmission of my data and insure I am compliant with industry rules?
- How is email protected?
- What risk is there to my company if an employee loses a personal device?
- How is the I.D. and business information of a user protected when in a public setting?
- Can you define which devices can access the network?
