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New Year, New BYOD Policy? How the Internet of Things Ties into Your Compliance

• By: Garry Feldman
• Date: December 23, 2015

Is your company going to be implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy? More and more companies are seeing how it makes total sense for their employees to use the devices that they are most comfortable operating. For the compliance department, it can open up an entirely new set of issues. Is your compliance department thinking about these potential problems?

Privacy Laws

A huge issue going forward with the Internet of Things (IoT) is privacy laws. In the past, it was very clear how you could draw the line between business devices and personal devices. As businesses are leveraging the idea of BYOD policies, there is a whole new idea of privacy.

There is no longer an expectation that the device is only going to contain business related data. Personal emails, financial records, medical data and any other number of things can begin to open up a whole new arena of compliance issues. Is your company going to be responsible for a HIPPA violation because a network breach compromised personal health records on employee devices?

Privacy is a major area of concern for compliance when it comes to a BOYD policy. Businesses and IT departments are going to need to think long and hard for solutions.

Security Issues

Security takes on a whole new dimension when you start to consider a BYOD policy for your workplace. When designing your network structure, you take into consideration the security risks that certain hardware is going to have on your network. If you have a BYOD policy, you are less in control of what types of hardware are going to be connecting and how those devices might affect your security policy.

Do you ban the use of certain devices? That goes against the spirit of a BYOD policy but might be necessary to alleviate certain security concerns. Do you put the burden of compliance on the end user so that it is up to them to ensure that security policy is not violated? Again, these are only a few of the important questions an IT compliance department is going to need to consider when implementing a BYOD policy.

Non-Standard Devices

The Internet of Things brings a whole host of devices into the workplace. This can include equipment that your IT department may not have even considered. However, it could be critical in terms of security and privacy that the full impact of all devices be understood. Compliance departments may need to begin compiling lists of all IoT devices that are accessing the network and potential risks those devices could ultimately represent. Compliance policy must be built on allowing acceptable risks while eliminating potential issues.

Let US Computer Connection Help with Your IT Implementation in Fairfield

US Computer Connection has the experience you need to help you with your BYOD implementation. We can help you with all of your compliance issues. Contact us today!