Adopting a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for your small business can boost your profits by increasing your employees’ productivity. If they’re able to work from anywhere, flexibly using different computing devices, they could work more efficiently, get more done, and also able to take advantage of business opportunities more quickly.

However, before adopting a BYOD policy for your business, you need to understand the risks. By getting a good sense of the risks beforehand and figuring out ways to mitigate them, you can benefit from a BYOD business environment without exposing your company to serious risks.

The following are Five ways to Mitigate BYOD Risk:

• Data encryption: Sensitive information includes everything from credit card numbers to your company’s intellectual property. You need to have information encrypted when it’s transmitted between devices and stored in the cloud or in a secure container on a given device.
• User authentication: Especially when it comes to your most sensitive data, you need to set up policies for employee access. What steps will they need to take to prove who they are and gain access to certain data? What steps do you have in place to change levels of access, in the event that an employee leaves the company or transfers to a new position?
• Secure networks: A network that isn’t properly secure could jeopardize your sensitive data. One solution is to use a virtual private network (VPN).
• Policies on third-party apps and Internet use: Your employees may download a file containing a virus or load a third-party app onto their device, compromising its security. You need to come up with a comprehensive policy for BYOD safe practices, along with considering what defensive measures to adopt that will kick in if a device becomes infected.
• Damage control after device theft: If a device gets stolen, what’s to stop a criminal from gaining access to your data? User authentication is one important measure. You can also implement ways to track a device, lock it or wipe out its data remotely.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, be sure to contact experienced a managed IT services provider, like GeekTek IT Services, to help you come up with powerful solutions for minimizing BYOD risks.

Even if you don’t have a BYOD policy for your company, and everyone works from the same kinds of computing devices at a fixed location, the issues discussed here still have relevance to you. You need IT experts to help you come up with powerful solutions tailored to your business.

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