Mobile devices are everywhere in the modern workplace. After all, the mobile device is a powerful tool, in your pocket. With that being said, they’re expensive to hand out to staff, and a hassle to implement into your own organisation.

However, a new solution now exists. Bring your own mobile device (BYOMD) enables mobile usage in the workplace, by letting employees use their own mobile devices to be able to save on their own handsets. This means that employees don’t have to carry around two devices either, and you don’t have to worry about loss or theft.

In this article, we’re going to go over the ins and outs of BYOMD, as well as the many security challenges that come with BYOMD in the modern workplace. We’ll then go over one of the best tools for BYOMD in the workplace — Microsoft Intune — and how you can get started with it today.

What is BYOMD?

Bring Your Own Mobile Device (BYOMD) is an extension of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy that many organisations use for laptops and other devices. Essentially, it allows employees to use their personal smartphones to be able to access work documents, emails, applications, and other work resources.

There are many benefits to using BYOMD in your organisation:

  • Convenience and Flexibility: Employees can use their own devices, meaning that they don’t have to carry around two mobile devices and can access their work files wherever they are.
  • Cost Saving: As you don’t have to hand out your own devices, you save money on handsets. You also don’t need to worry about loss prevention, or ensuring that leaving staff return work property.
  • Leverage familiarity: As employees will be familiar with these devices, they will not need to have to work out the ins and outs of a new device. They’ll know their phone inside and out and will be able to be more productive using it.

Ultimately, BYOMD is a great concept, but it does have its own flaws and challenges, especially regarding security.

The Security Challenges of BYOMD

Data Leakage

It can be difficult to ensure that your employees using BYOMD have the highest level of security, leaving concerns about data leakage.

After all, low-security measures on a personal device could lead to your sensitive data being leaked to others, and their devices could even have malware or vulnerabilities that make your data vulnerable.

Moreover, employees could accidentally share important information with other people on their devices, or through cloud storage services. This will ultimately lead to important data getting out, even if completely by accident.

Unauthorised Access

With less security than a company-issued device, a BYOMD device can easily be breached if someone else gets their hands on it. With a company-issued device, it’s far easier to lock and deactivate it so its contents are inaccessible in the case of being lost. However, with a BYOMD device, you can’t do that with ease.

On top of this, accessing unsecured networks and access points with malicious actors around will put your data at risk — and BYOMD devices aren’t prepared for this eventuality.

Privacy Concerns

However, the most obvious route of protecting your organisation here is using MDM software to manage your employees’ phones. This will allow you to manage that device from your IT department.

However, this has some clear privacy concerns. After all, MDM software will monitor your employee’s phone — including all personal applications and data. Naturally, this is intrusive and is too much control for a company to have.

Compromised Applications

Applications that are intrusive or compromised could become a vulnerability, as those applications could take data from your employee’s phone and cause leakage.

This is because lots of applications ask for extensive device-wide permissions, meaning that they can access data throughout any given mobile device — meaning your data is also at risk. Restricting applications would be the solution here, but ultimately, that is difficult to do on a BYOMD device.

Microsoft Intune: A Solution for BYOMD

Instead of needing to rely on traditional, archaic MDM solutions that are excessively invasive, Microsoft Intune is a new, flexible solution that enables BYOMD for your employees without causing hassle or stress.

Microsoft Intune has many advantages over traditional MDM solutions:

  • Privacy Concerns: You can segregate personal and work data using Microsoft Intune, meaning that your enterprise device management will never have any privacy concerns. You won’t be managing their phone, just the segregated business data.
  • Data Leakage: Microsoft Intune provides end-to-end encryption, meaning that even if data gets into the wrong hands, it can’t be accessed without an encryption key. Plus, Microsoft Intune is a secure, trusted application created by a well-known company, meaning that you can trust that their security is a higher standard than other MDM applications.
  • Conditional Access: You can integrate Microsoft Intune with other Microsoft access control tools such as Entra ID, meaning that you can provide conditional access based on device location, user identity, and other factors. This will help protect from hackers and other bad-faith actors.
  • Security Management: Microsoft Intune integrates with Microsoft Defender, meaning that you can bring full security features to BYOMD without having to compromise on quality or consistency.

Ultimately, Microsoft Intune is the pinnacle of modern BYOMD management and is a must-have for any organisation looking to introduce BYOMD into their business.

Ready to Get Started?

Bring Your Own Mobile Device (BYOMD) is a great asset for any organisation, but has its own security risks. By making sure to be aware of those risks, and using Microsoft Intune to facilitate BYOMD, you can ensure that the policy is successful throughout all aspects of your business.

If you’re looking to get started with Microsoft Intune but don’t know where to begin, reach out to us today. Our experts are here to help you and will ensure you have everything you need to get started with BYOMD.

Get in touch with us now and see how we can help.