Current States and Security Challenges of BYOD. Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Current States and Security Challenges of BYOD
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Current States and Security Challenges of BYOD
I. Introduction
The constant dependability of mobile devices and mobile technology improvements have led to the development of several gadgets that organizations are exploiting to drive their ICT agenda. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a moderately new strategy that modern organizations are embracing, which permits personnel to use their computing devices such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets in the workplace. According to a recent study by Downer and Bhattacharya (2015), nearly 70% of corporations have incorporated the BYOD concept and affirm that they experience improvements in their operations, for instance, enhanced employee productivity, effectiveness, self-confidence and decreased hardware expenditures. Nonetheless, the authors also discovered that although 50% of personnel actively use pre-installed security procedures on their devices, for instance, password codes, less than 20% utilize additional methods such as anti-malware. Therefore, the increasing growth and implementation of information and communication technology initiatives globally have triggered organizations to adopt evolving developments such as BYOD. Overall, BYOD is rapidly transforming the operational approaches of entities to enhance efficiency and productivity. Despite the benefits that the BYOD program bears on organizations, there are some privacy challenges that organizations need to address to make the initiative effective and secure.
II. Problem Statement
In the past few years, a virtual explosion in IT has been witnessed across the globe. Developments such as BYOD have taken shape with several organizations progressively incorporating this shift in their IT culture. BYOD initiative allows workers to bring their computing gadgets such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets to the workplace and integrate them into the company network instead of using business-owned devices. Consequently, the BYOD program shifts the expense of acquiring the devices to the employee. Several corporations have taken the lead in approving the BYOD model, for instance, Intel, Unisys, and Apple. The emergence of BYOD also focuses on the corporate implementation of the computer devices for both private and work purposes. Despite the benefits associated with BYOD adoption, the program also creates potential security concerns, mainly due to the employees’ devices having access to a company’s internal IT resources. Since several security issues are associated with the use of BYOD, the concern should be considered as a challenge of strategic significance for organizational leaders.
III. Relevance and Significance
The innovative capabilities of new computer devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and the development of high-speed Internet, have inspired corporations to incorporate these gadgets in the workplace. These devices enhance employees’ effectiveness and organization productivity. Moreover, the use of personal devices also shifts the costs of purchasing the devices from employers to employees. Therefore, most organizations are opting to implement the BYOD initiative in their operations. Despite the benefits, BYOD is also associated with numerous challenges, primarily privacy issues of both employees and the organization internal data. Therefore, this study is relevant and significant since it addresses the current implementation of BYOD and provides recommendations to mitigate the challenges that emanate from BYOD program implementation in organizations.
IV. Literature Analysis
A. Current Status of BYOD
BYOD entails a policy that allows workers to use their mobile devices at the workplace. Nonetheless, due to the recent BYOD’s popularity, the concept has become more than the utilization of mobile gadgets at work. BYOD is currently focusing on the benefits gained from personnel using their devices to enhance their output, job fulfillment, and mobility. Most corporations adopt the BYOD approach as either passive or active. The passive approach entails companies allowing workers to bring their individual devices to the workplace and use them for work activities. Contrariwise, in the active approach, a corporation establishes a specific BYOD policy and execute it in the work environment. An active approach to BYOD depends on personal devices and necessitates an infrastructure to back up and asset’s efficiency (French, Guo, & Shim, 2014).