In the last few years, the concept of bring your own device (BYOD) has made significant inroads in the business world. Simply put, it’s a policy where employees use their own personal mobile devices in the course of their work day, as opposed to the company issuing devices themselves. Aside from the cost savings, it keeps things simple for the employee who may be often on the go or working from home, and prevents the need of separate devices for work and personal use.

But like any other good idea, there are pitfalls that could have far-reaching consequences if the proper measures aren’t taken. Here are a few things that should be taken into consideration if your company has a BYOD policy.

A BYOD policy saves money, but comes with its own set of challenges

Firewalls and BYOD

Rather than saving the best, so to speak, for last, we’re diving right into the biggest issue: firewall breaches in the bring your own device era. Let’s say that your business allows BYOD. Furthermore, let’s also say that one particular employee is rather lax when it comes to mobile web security, and has made some, to put it mildly, unfortunate choices in the kinds of websites he’s visited with his mobile device.

So his smart phone picks up a virus, and that device becomes the means by which malware is delivered to your company’s network, bypassing the firewall. Before you know it, your system is compromised from within and comes crashing down, much like what Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith did that to the alien mothership in the movie Independence Day, and we all know how THAT turned out for the aliens.

That’s why a coherent firewall rules policy needs to not only created, but implemented across the board by all employees who do BYOD. And like the cliché goes, it only takes one.

Misplaced Devices

This one’s an offshoot of the firewall issue, because once again it comes down to the almighty bugaboo, security. Your sales manager has her own tablet that she uses in a BYOD arrangement at work. One day, she leaves it behind at Starbucks. And just like that, there’s a possible open doorway into your company’s internal workings, not to mention any work files stored on the device itself.

Who’s Paying For This, Anyway?

So your company has instituted BYOD has a way of saving money on purchasing devices for employees. That’s all well and good, but who’s paying for the data plans themselves? Most employees will balk at having to bear the financial burden of a data plan all by themselves. While a good compromise solution would be to offer a subsidy or reimbursement, how much of those resources are going for the employees’ personal use? And in order to keep tabs on matters like that, you need to consider …

Device Management And Accountability

This is where the waters get a bit muddy. After all, if you’re paying for an employee’s data plan, it’s for that employee to do work, not for watching cat videos on YouTube. At least when all of a company’s devices come from the company itself, there are ways of accounting for usage. When it comes to people’s own personal devices, this becomes a difficult task, if not outright infeasible. The company needs to create a reasonable set of procedures dictating data usage, and acknowledge that there will be some inevitable spillover into personal use.

All Of This Points To One Thing:

Funny how something that started out sounding like a good way to save some money while giving your employees some mobility and flexibility, instead turns into a logistical nightmare and a host of BYOD issues. But the solution to all of these issues, and even then it’s not a perfect one, is the creation and implementation of a clear, realistic set of policies governing the usage of BYOD, and that includes restrictions on data usage, the routine changing of passwords, and other safeguards.

As a parting note, it bears mention that should something go wrong, it’s important to have access to a contingency plan and tools that enable you to revert to a previous firewall version quickly, thereby minimizing lost time and possible data loss.

BYOD isn’t a bad idea; just make sure you know what you’re getting into before green-lighting it.