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Storage device such as SD card, usb flash drive, external hard drive, Mobile phone and note book

Bring your own device (BYOD) for a mobile workforce: Benefits and risks

Learn about the benefits and issues of supporting a BYOD environment, as well as practical tips on how to manage associated risks.

As employees embrace workplace mobility, mobile devices are becoming a treasure trove of corporate information. Therefore, CPAs in risk or oversight roles must help their businesses protect these assets and intellectual property by ensuring proper security and control over that data.

A recent study found that over 60 per cent of small business owners agree that the risk of data breach is higher when employees work remotely and 40 per cent of senior management and business owners reported human error or accidental loss by employees as the main cause of a data breach.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Strategy for a Mobile Workforce: Technology Spotlight provides an overview of the benefits, issues and risk mitigation strategies for companies supporting BYOD for their employees.

Key tips include:

  • how to leverage mobile device management solutions to manage policy, inventory, and security of employees' personally-owned devices
  • how to implement an approved list of supported devices that employees can bring to work and clearly defining the level of support provided for those devices
  • developing corporate data classification controls and applying the corresponding protection mechanisms to the data on personally-owned devices