BYOD practices rise, but security concern is overblown

For a long time the policy of corporate issued phones has been a mainstay. Now, more companies are implementing a bring your own device (BYOD) policy, but CIOs are worried over the security and networking concerns these initiative create. Some IT professionals, however, are telling the industry to calm down.

In a new interview with CIO Magazine, John Mensel, the director of security services at a 10-year-old IT consulting firm, talks about the reality of the security issues, as well as how the current role of IT is changing.

Mensel points out that the security concerns are nothing new. In fact, mobile devices are not as serious a threat to internal security as laptops are, which have been around for much longer. He points out that there is no better way to steal data and introduce viruses into a company network than connecting a laptop directly over a VPN.

IT departments are not going anywhere, Mensel explained. They are just evolving. Even though the traditional roles of IT are becoming obsolete, new innovations in business communication are creating new ones that need to be managed.

“Yeah, we’re going to be getting out of the business of doing day-to-day desktop support,” said Mensel. “But our business is going to turn into the business of providing people with interfaces that they can plug their devices into. In a traditional model, there’s a desktop with a bunch of applications installed on it – all of which are configured by IT. It’s a very tightly controlled environment.”

BYOD solutions are growing and implementing a unified communication system is considered by many businesses. Partnering with a managed IT service like CTI Technology is a smart investment for any company looking to ensure a complete solution is deployed.

Now, more companies are implementing a bring your own device (BYOD) policy, but CIOs are worried over the security and networking concerns these initiative create.