Sir – It’s great that organisations of all sizes are taking advantage of a BYOD strategy and reaping the benefits of a more flexible workforce. A BYOD strategy can help relieve the headache of dealing with a huge amount of data and is therefore particularly beneficial for the housing sector and housing associations dealing with tenants and properties in a wide geographical area. However, it is important that your readers are fully aware of the host of risks and security issues associated with BYOD, as well as the options available in order to mitigate these.
The very nature of BYOD, allowing employees to access the company server through personal devices, leaves corporate data vulnerable and open to people outside the company, therefore jeopardising sensitive information. It is therefore imperative that companies considering BYOD make the security of the system a priority.
BYOD systems secured with personalised log-in details allow certain levels of access for different employees depending on their responsibilities. Guidelines and confidentiality agreements are also important, and should be clearly outlined and agreed with employees if they wish to connect their own device to the company server and work remotely.
Housing providers can benefit greatly from a BYOD system and the last issue of this magazine hopefully inspired companies to embrace remote working. However, I would urge anyone who is intending to deploy BYOD to ensure that security measures are embedded within the system at all levels in order to alleviate the risks and get the most out of their BYOD scheme.
Adam Jarvis
CEO, Intrinsic Technology
