Icebergs, The Nordics, and Other BYOD Considerations

February 13, 2013 1 Comment

The BYOD iceberg headed towards your businessNew data shows that companies are increasingly exposed to security risks due to a variety of consumer-grade technology brought in by the employees.


I just returned from a tour in the Nordic countries where I presented to the local press the results of the latest BYOD survey* conducted by YouGov on behalf of Trend Micro. The data collected from 3,012 interviews across Norway, Sweden, and Denmark highlights many details of this controversial IT Trend. Most importantly, the research confirms an undeniable truth: Companies around the world are exposed to increasing security risks due to a variety of consumer-grade technology brought into the enterprise by the employees and inevitably used for work-related activities.

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Legal and technical BYOD pitfalls highlighted at RSA Conference

October 16, 2012

Companies that don’t protect themselves through policies place themselves at risk.

Post based on my interview* with Mikael Ricknas of Computerworld.

Allowing employees to bring their own devices to work is causing new challenges, including what happens when a device needs to be wiped or employees want to sell their smartphone or tablet.

Mobile security and BYOD (bring your own device) are main themes at the European edition of RSA’s security conference, which takes place this week in London.

Letting employees use their own smartphones or tablets for work represents a loss of control for IT departments. Also, if personal data isn’t handled correctly, the company may end up being sued, said Cesare Garlati, vice president of mobile security at Trend Micro and the moderator of a conference session called “The Dark Side of BYOD“.

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BYOD: A Leap Of Faith For Enterprise Users? What has changed in the past year.

August 14, 2012

Post based on my remarks at Direction 2012 Conference* in Tokyo – August 7, 2012.

I’ve been talking about Consumerization and BYOD – bring-your-own-device – for quite a while now. What has changed in that past year since my presentation at the CIO Summit in Singapore?

What has changed is that more and more organizations are adopting BYOD. Executives and IT managers are learning about the benefits and the perils of BYOD first-hand.

Trend Micro has been working with industry analysts like Decisive Analytics and Forrester Research to take the pulse of IT decision-makers, to help us understand their challenges and what solutions we can offer. They also give us great insights into the state of the union of BYOD.

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BYOD – Bring Your Own Device

June 25, 2012 2 Comments

Where employees once enquired about private medical cover and company cars, now they may ask to work on their own iPhone or Android. It’s a perk of the job that can boost productivity, but implement your BYOD policy incorrectly (or even pretend it’s not happening) and it could cost you dear, say our experts

Post based on my interview* with Richard Dunnett of Director Magazine

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BYOD Best Practices – Three pitfalls you can’t afford to ignore

May 15, 2012 4 Comments

In a previous post1I raised three pitfalls that your BYOD program cannot afford to ignore when allowing employees to use their personal devices for work:

- Remote deletion of personal data on an employee-owned device
- Tracking an individual’s location
- Monitoring an employee’s Internet access

Based on my involvement with various BYOD projects2 and my ongoing conversations with many industry experts, here is my recommendation for three best practices that will allow you to strike the delicate balance between employee privacy and corporate liability :

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The Dark Side of BYOD: Privacy, Personal Data Loss and Device Seizure

February 6, 2012 3 Comments

Many employees don’t understand the implications of using their personal devices for work. Many companies don’t understand that they are in fact liable for the consequences. This post covers the things you always wanted to know about BYOD but were too afraid to ask.

Good News: Your company offers a BYOD program. You can finally stop carrying that boring corporate phone and use your own shiny new iPhone for work. Even better, you can now check your corporate email from home while streaming YouTube videos on your Galaxy tablet. Your company picks up part of the bill and even provides enterprise-grade help desk support to help you with your gadgets. It looks like an offer you can’t refuse.

Bad News:  You joined your company’s BYOD program. One morning you wake up, reach for your iPad to check the email but it doesn’t turn on. Your iPad is dead. Totally bricked. After a quick family investigation you realize that the little one tried to guess your password to play Angry Birds before you would wake up. Too bad the security policy enforced by the corporate email account triggered your iPad self-destruction to prevent sensitive corporate data from unauthorized access. Angrier than those famous birds? Wait until you realize that the device itself can be brought back to life and your corporate data restored. But that your pictures, videos and songs are gone. Forever. Note: the case above is based on a true story, my son’s name is Luca.
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Consumerization 101 – Employee Privacy Vs. Corporate Liability

December 19, 2011 1 Comment

Three pitfalls your BYOD program can’t afford to ignore.


Mary D. joined MD&M Inc. in 2009. Being an Apple enthusiast, she was quite excited to learn that the company offered an innovative BYOD program that allows employees to use their own iPhone for work. As part of the new hire package, Mary signed the acceptable use policy and was granted access to corporate email on the go.

Mary’s started having performance problems in her second year, and her manager put her on notice. After six months, Mary was terminated. When her manager clicked the ‘terminate’ button within the company’s HR system, a series of automated tasks were initiated, including the remote wipe of all information on Mary’s iPhone.

As it turned out, Mary had been performing poorly because her son John was dying of cancer. Just a few weeks before Mary was terminated, her husband took a picture of her and his son using Mary’s iPhone. It was the last photo Mary had of her son, and MD&M Inc. unknowingly destroyed it. Mary sued the company for damages.

Just how much is the last photo of a mother and son worth? Attorneys and expert witnesses sought to answer that question. They arrived at $5 million.

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Embrace Consumerization in the Enterprise

August 13, 2011

Fireside Chat with Ty Smallwood, Chief Security Officer, Medical Center of Central Georgia – Gartner Security Summit 2011, Washington DC.


According to Gartner, the consumerization of IT is the most significant trend affecting the IT Industry in the next ten years. As the Security Officer of one of the largest health care organizations in the U.S., how do you feel about this trend? How is it affecting your organization?

There has definitely been an impact on the organization, both from a policy process and procedure perspective. The cost to accommodate consumerization is always a factor.

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Consumerization Talks with Ken Dulaney, VP Gartner Research

June 28, 2011

“This is the fashion business, not the PC business … most of our clients today say if they were to have an auditor come in and audit them across all the technologies in use, that they would fail.”


The consumerization of IT will be the single most influential technology trend of this decade, says Gartner, and companies are already well aware of it as the wrestle with the growing influence of smartphones, tablets, social media, and on and on. And while this growth does bring risks, too many companies make the mistake of trying to stop all together the influx of consumer IT. What potential benefits can the consumerization of IT yield for your organization? Why is a strategic approach an imperative for attaining those benefits? And what risks will you have to contend with? Below is an excerpt of my recent conversation with Ken Dulaney, Vice President and distinguished analyst in Gartner Research. Ken answers these questions, and more importantly, reveals the solutions and best practices  to turn consumerization into a competitive advantage.

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Riding the Consumerization Wave

June 8, 2011 2 Comments

Rather than resist it, organizations should embrace Consumerization to unlock its business potential. This requires a strategic approach, flexible policies and appropriate security and management tools.

The consumerization of IT is the single most influential technology trend of this decade. Companies are already well aware of it, as they wrestle with the growing influence of smartphones, tablets, Facebook, Twitter and on and on. While this growth does bring risks, too many companies make the mistake of trying to resist the influx of consumer IT. So what are the solutions and best practices for a company to turn consumerization into a competitive advantage?
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