The growing trend known as bring your own device (BYOD), which is seeing organisations adopt a more open system, has brought with it a number of issues.

BYOD basically sees companies adopt a relaxed attitude to what devices their employees work from.

Graeme Batsman, director of Datafinder, explained that companies have a number of options at their disposal.

They can simply do nothing, which is not perhaps the best approach, they can be authoritative and block all USB drives and CD/DVD drives, or take an automated approach.

"The latter is the best option, which allows automated port control, device control and can remotely delete or lock data," stated Mr Batsman.

"This can allow part data encryption, meaning personal data can be left alone but business data is placed in a simple encrypted folder on a USB or mobile device."

He added that this automated approach, coupled with other data protection measures, is the way forward.

"If companies have no policy or no enforcement, they are asking for trouble," he warned.

Datadefender.co.uk is a UK-based information security consultancy that offers a wide range of bespoke services.

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Posted by Peter Taylor

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