Three BYOD Scenarios that Require Remote Wipe

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) became a business buzzword in 2009 and has completely revolutionized the way that employees are conducting business. BYOD can save organizations money. A comprehensive BYOD campaign can save an organization up to $1,300 per user per year. It’s more than saving money, though. BYOD is about bringing flexibility to your employees by allowing them to work on a device that they’re familiar with in order to make them more productive. In fact, according to Forbes, 49% of users say that they are more productive when using their own devices.

Many businesses are still slow to integrate comprehensive BYOD campaigns because of previous experiences and perceived security risks associated with a campaign. This is for good reason. According to Gartner, 20% of BYOD projects will have failed by 2016. However, when implemented properly with the appropriate policies and tools, BYOD can be extraordinarily successful, boosting efficiency and saving money along the way. But how can a business guarantee the protection of their data on that personal device? Remote Wipe is a BYOD service element that should be implemented for every worst-case scenario involving your employee’s device.

Here are three BYOD scenarios that require Remote Wipe:

1. Unexpected employee departure
   No matter how hard you work as a business owner or manager to maintain a great company culture and keep employees happy, there are many scenarios under which an employee leaves unexpectedly. This can be due to the personal conflict in the workplace, an argument with management or inappropriate activities that violate workplace policies. In the event of an employee walkout or no-show, Remote Wipe allows a business to wipe a device of all data to protect the company’s data. Please note that it’s important to create a written policy that can be reviewed and signed by any employee to avoid potential legal action. This will encourage an employee to leave on good terms and data removed from their device with minimal impact to their personal data on their device.

2. A lost or stolen device
   While smartphones and tablets are not frequently lost, since they’re so frequently used, it’s possible that a smartphone, tablet or laptop may be misplaced or stolen. When this happens, rather than worrying about whose hands company data could potentially fall into, it’s much better for an organization to be able to wipe that device of all data so that no customer, client or company data can be compromised.

3. A device is hacked or compromised
   While you may take care to ensure that your company network is well secured and impervious to breach, it’s almost impossible to guarantee that your employee can do the same to every network that they happen to be connected to. As a result, many devices are hacked or compromised, which could result in company data being compromised. In order to be as proactive as possible in this scenario, it’s very important that a device be wiped as soon as possible. This can minimize damage caused by the offending device and prevent further data leaking and exposure to internal resources.

You pay a lot of money to protect your internal network and devices with firewalls, routers, antivirus and malware software. BYOD is just one more opening into your company data that is leaving your susceptible to breach. Rather than counting on your employees to make the best decision, having the ability to remotely wipe a device can give you great peace of mind. When paired with a well-crafted BYOD and acceptable use policy, it almost always guarantees the success of any BYOD campaign.