One recent trend many businesses are picking up on is called BYOD. BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device. It is a policy whereby, rather than an employer providing the employee with a device, such as a computer or phone, the employee brings in their own personal devices to work on. It is popular with the majority of employers and employees because it allows companies to save money on purchasing devices, while employees receive greater flexibility over the kind of devices they have to use every day. Today, one of the most important devices are smart phones.
In the United States, half of all cell phones today are smart phones. As more and more people are buying smart phones, businesses are adapting and putting these incredible mobile devices to work. Unfortunately, users can be careless with their smart phones. A recent study found that 9% of iPhone users have dropped their phone in the toilet.
While this might not seem like a problem for businesses, consider what could happen if an employee lost their iPhone and they had sensitive company information on it? It could spell bad news for that business. Unfortunately, only 9% of companies that have a BYOD policy also have a policy in place to erase company data in the case of such an event.
This is why more businesses need to take iPhone security and iPad security more seriously. At the minimum, businesses should require their employees to lock and password protect their phones. Businesses can also have employees install special iPhone enterprise management software which allows businesses to lock a phone remotely and gives them the ability to erase company data if the phone is lost. The more and more employees using iPhones for work, the more and more companies need to take iPhone device management and iPhone security more seriously.