Most BYOD employees fail to properly dispose of or wipe company information from personal devices when upgrading to the latest tablets and smartphones, according to a report from Harris Interactive.
Only 16 percent of US adults said they had their old smartphones professionally wiped before upgrading, and only 5 percent had the device securely destroyed. Most respondents said they kept the old device (58 percent), although it was inactive. Some 13 percent turned it over to their service provider, and 11 percent donated it, gave it away, or threw it in the trash.
Harris Interactive conducted the report for Fiberlink, a cloud-based solution provider for mobile device and application management. It surveyed 2,243 US adults in July.
Employees upgrading to new devices need to do it right. They should notify their IT department, transfer corporate materials to the new device using their company's mobile device management application, extract personal data from the device, and securely erase all remaining personal and corporate data by performing a factory reset or using a mobile device management application. Some tablets and smartphones have removable storage cards, which the employee should take out.
The upgrade cycle is another way that BYOD is changing IT. Until BYOD, old devices went back to IT for safe disposal. But that doesn't happen when the employee owns the device. "Some people are handing them off to their kids to use, whether they keep a cellular service on it or just use it as a Wi-Fi device," David Lingenfelter, Fiberlink information security officer, told CIO Magazine. "We're seeing a lot of trade-ins and hand-offs to children or siblings that aren't associated with the company. And when you trade a device in, the people you're trading it into may or may not wipe it before they auction it off or sell it as a used device."
Turning off email access remotely is simple, but this year more employees are using their own devices to access other corporate data. Fiberlink recommends adding provisions for decommissioning BYOD devices to the company BYOD or mobile policy. And companies that don't have a BYOD policy need to fix that.
The survey is self-serving; Fiberlink is, of course, looking to sell more of its solutions. But it seems to me to make good points. Many people are going to find new tablets and smartphones around the Festivus pole this month, and corporate IT should be sure that if those devices are used with corporate data, it's done safely.
Mobile devices are just tip of iceberg poor BYOD hey genie abounds
- PCs and mobile devices where I have saved usernames and passwords to the browser
- PCs and mobile devices where IT was not even involved in setting up access, for example users copied settings from iPhone to iPad.
- browsers with bookmarks to company sites. Knowledge of url, plus common usernames and passwords makes hacking so much easier
I just realized I sold a dead iPhone (a swim in the lake) to Gazelle and I did no cleansing as the device would not turn on any more - but could an expert have found stuff - sure. Fortunately Gazelle has good policies on cleansing data.
I agree with you, @dcawrey. Policies don't have to play dictator, but simply explain to employees the strengths and weaknesses of BYOD. That way they can make informed decions, and realizing that if they want to play the BYOD game, they have to play by the rules. But policies are a must before BYOD is considered so everyone is well informed and there are no scary surprises.
I don't carry a personal phone and workphone, but I don't see a problem in doing so. And, occasionally I've considered asking corporate for a mobile device, because our own BYOD regulations aren't something I want to involve myself in.
It doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Phones are tiny.
mharden - That's antithetical to the philosophy of BYOD, isn't it? If the employee owns the device, how can the employer dictate the terms and conditions of resale?
I work out of my home but my employer doesn't tell me who I can sell my house to.
Some organizations, amazingly, are lagging behind. It could be because those that are in charge are not familiar with bring your own device, or maybe they have not had enough time to evaluate what to do.
Regardless, the time for action is now. I for one despise carrying a personal phone and another device for work. There's really no need to do that, unless you really want to be able to separate out work/life. The companies that get on top of this are ahead of the game, and even if they need to refine their policies down the line they are better off in the long run for instituting a policy early on.
Many companies may still not have a way of implementing BYOD policies to the letter. i guess it depends on the nature of business. If the business uses specialized software that needs to be replaced by the system admin, then its easy. however if its just office or other easy to replace software, its easy for employees to switch devices and not be compelled to wipe the former ones.
I'm not convinced that this is just the lack of effort or hygiene on the employees' part. It could also be the result of no or poorly defined BYOD policies from management or IT. The lack of a mobile device management platform for an organization could also be particularly troublesome. But BYOD is still relatively new, and I am convinced that companies will get it right in time to make sure that mobile data is kept safe and secure.
@ mharden
Partnerships with such can be a good option but only after employees are complying by notifying the company that they are about to dispose of the phone or upgrading it to new platform. As we are talking about BYOD, we should know that if employees don't policies seriously, no firm can implement its skills to make the company data secure.
If the company wants to allow its employees to be a part of BYOD policy then it must convey the rules and a condition that approval of the company is required before disposing off the phone which will be granted after IT department has inspected the phone and wiped off the data. Employees who don't comply should be penalized.
This goes to show that many are still not ready for BYOD. If the IT team can't get their act together, then they should definitely rethink implementing BYOD. There's a reason why BYOD comes with policies and security measures in tow. Without these, BYOD is a recipe for disaster.
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