Memorandum

To: Readers

From: Atem John Yak AJP

Date: April 7, 2015

Subject: The Consequences of “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)” Research Report

Attached is a completed report on the consequences of BYOD on the network. The research

extensively discusses what is fueling the rise of BYOD and both positive and negative effects on

networks. The research also provides some best practice recommendations for organizations

wishing to implement BYOD on their network.

In this package, you will find the following:

Executive summary

Table of contents

The research report

Appendix

I hope this will help you assess the suitability of BYOD for your organization. Please let me

know if you have questions.

Best regards,

Atem John Yak

The Consequences of “Bring Your Own Device” To the Network

Source: (Alfano, 2012)

For Poor Man Grill Blog

Author:

Atem John Yak

April 7, 2015

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK i

Executive Summary

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), a new trend in the workplace, according to Loucks, it

is defined as “the practice of employees bringing personally-owned mobile devices (e.g.,

smartphones, tablets, laptops) to the workplace and using those devices to access company

resources such as email, file servers, and databases” (Loucks). A recent research survey by

organizations like Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) revealed, “an astounding 89

percent of companies surveyed are enabling their employees to use their own devices —

specifically, mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets — for work purposes. The

study also showed that 69 percent of IT decision makers (up to 88 percent in some countries)

feels that BYOD has been a positive development for their organization” (Loucks).

On the one hand, doubt has been cast concerning the benefits companies reap when they

implement BYOD. BYOD promises tantalizing value such as:

Greater employee productivity

Employee satisfaction

Lower costs

Mobility and innovation

On the other hand, some fear the following negative consequences:

Security risks and the complexity of managing devices on multiple platforms,

The effects on employees' health

Privacy

Costs of implementation and strain on IT department budgets,

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK ii

Fear of litigation and loss of employees’ morality (Loucks).

This research report examines what has contributed to the rise of “Bring Your Own

Device” in the workplace, and its consequences on the organizations as well as on employees.

This report examines and analyzes both the positive and negative effects of “Bring Your Own

Device” and bring them to the forefront for various decision makers such as security

professionals, IT managers and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to help them reach an

informed decision.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………………. I

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….. .1

An Overview ………………………………………………………………………………… .2

What Is Fueling BYOD Demand in the Workplace ….............................................................. 3

The Benefits companies Reap from Implementing BYOD in their Networks...........................7

Case study: Intel …………………………………………………………………………….... .8

The Dark Side of BYOD …………………………………………………………………….. ..9

Security……………………………………………………………………………………….. .10

Cost……………………………………………………………………………………………. 13

Strain on IT Departments………………………………………………………………………14

Privacy………………………………………………………………………………………….15

Workplace Morale and mobility………………………………………………………………..16

Health Concerns………………………………………………………………………………..16

Summary, Conclusion, Recommendation ……………………………………………………..17

Reference ………………………………………………………………………………………18

Appendices

Appendix A: Hillary Clinton’s Email Scandal ………………………………………………...20

List of figures

Figure 1: …………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

Figure 2: ………………………………………………………………………………………6

Figure 3: ……………………………………………………………………………………... 7

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 1

The Consequences of “Bring Your Own Device-BYOD” To the Network

Introduction

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), a new phenomenon in the workplace that is wreaking

havoc on its networks, is defined as the practice of employees bringing personally-owned mobile

devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, laptops) to the workplace, and using those devices to access

company resources such as email, file servers, and databases. To determine the extent of how

widespread is the concept of BYOD in workplace, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group

(IBSG), “interviewed nearly 4,900 business leaders and IT decision makers in nine countries

from January to July 2012. This study revealed that an astounding 89 percent of companies are

enabling their employees to use their own devices — specifically, mobile devices such as

laptops, smartphones, and tablets — for work purposes”(Loucks). The study also showed that

“69 percent of IT decision makers (up to 88 percent in some countries) feel that BYOD has been

a positive development for their organization” (Loucks).

On the other hand, doubt has been cast about the benefits companies reap when they

implement BYOD. While BYOD promises tantalizing value such as greater employee

productivity, employee satisfaction, lower costs, mobility and innovation, some fear negative

consequences: security risks and the complexity of managing devices on multiple platforms, the

effects on employees’ health, privacy, costs of implementation and strain on IT department

budgets, fear of litigation for lost wages and loss of employees’ morality (Loucks).

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 2

This research report examine what has contributed to the rise of “Bring Your Own

Device” to the workplace, its consequences on the organization as well as on employees. This

report examines and analyzes both the positive and negative effects of “Bring Your Own

Device” and brings them to the forefront for various decision makers such as security

professionals, IT managers and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to help them reach an

informed decision.

An Overview

What is Fueling BYOD Demand in the Workplace?

The Bring Your Own Device revolution in the workplace can be traced back to the

introduction of the smartphone. In short, it is Research in Motion’s fault. Before the phrase that

became the acronym BYOD was first uttered, business professionals were checking office email

at lunch or at conferences and making deals with foreign clients in different time zones after

hours with their Blackberries. Besides smartphones, other technological evolutions such as

virtualization and the cloud contributed or encouraged the use of BYOD (Brown). Virtualization

of applications has made it easy for employees to retrieve company or corporate data on their

mobile devices wherever they are. The virtualization of applications has encouraged

corporations to set up virtual teams that do not need to come to the office. The ability afforded

by virtualization is that employees could work remotely in the company of their families and

enjoy their independence. On top of that, recent developments in application mobility and the

cloud support have further fueled the demand for “Bring Your Own Device” across the global

network. We can blame Amazon, Google, DropBox and the Box, but that would be

discouraging innovation (Brown).

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 3

Therefore, it would be premature to say that this trend will fade with time and better

understanding of its consequences. The truth is that BYOD is here to stay, and it will be up to

organizations to decide whether to implement BYOD or not.

The Benefits Companies Reap from Implementing BYOD in Their Networks

In recent years, studies have been carried out across the globe to determine the benefits

corporations gain when they implement BYOD. For example, in spring of 2012, “Cisco IBSG

surveyed 2,400 mobile users across 18 industries in six countries, the United States, United

Kingdom, Germany, India, China, and Brazil, to understand their BOYD usage”(Loucks). They

found that companies are allowing employees to use some sort of BYOD on their networks.

Amazingly, the result is that there is a wide acceptance by companies to allow users to bring

their own devices to access company data. This kind gesture by companies to their employees to

use whatever device they are accustomed to and more familiar with has led to wider variety of

devices and applications to be managed by IT. Even though it looks like a hassle to companies

IT staff, the companies see it as a way to pass on the cost of providing a company device to

employees. Therefore, by allowing employees to use their own devices, companies have greater

flexibility on how to use technology in manner that is cost savings. This study found that

companies in all countries get the lion’s share of the value of BYOD when they used a strategic

approach to provisioning devices, providing IT support, and developing mobile policies

(Loucks). When surveyed the employees claimed that they use their own devices for

productivity, flexibility and initiatives (Loucks). The employees believed that they accomplished

more when they are using their own devices. It is important to note that productivity

improvements come from the devices and the software, mobile apps, and cloud services used on

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 4

these devices. BYOD users highly value the ability to use the applications and services of their

choice, rather than being limited to what their companies offer (Loucks). The illustration below

furnishes the reasons for using BYOD by users.

Source: (Loucks)

Figure 1: Top Reasons Users Bring their Own Devices to Work

Companies are saving money and employees are more productive. Although companies

are not benefiting equally across the countries studied, average BYOD users save 37 minutes per

week when they are on their own device. The savings, however, varied from one country to

another with a high of 81 minutes per week in the United States and a low of four minutes per

week in Germany (Loucks). On average, basic BYOD generates $350 of value annually per

mobile user (including both BYOD and corporate device users). It is estimated that companies

can gain an additional $1,300 annually per mobile user with BYOD alone (Loucks). In addition,

BYOD sparks employee-led innovation in developed countries and reduces productivity losses in

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 5

emerging markets. In developed markets (the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany), the

researchers found that the greatest productivity gains happened when companies moved from

employer-provided desktop computer to employee-owned devices. The practice has allowed

employees to be mobile and with mobility they can be creative about the ways in which they

could to do work. The companies believe that in the end BYOD pays for itself despite the costs

to implement and support upfront. This is the greatest benefit companies’ gain from

implementation and the point many early adopters are quick to point out to their doubters

(Loucks). The ways in which the BYOD program pays for itself are as follow:

Hardware costs: Employees purchase devices previously bought by the company.

Support costs: Companies can actually reduce support costs with BYOD, as Cisco did, by

implementing community support, wikis, forums, and other streamlined support options.

Telecom costs: By migrating some mobile users from corporate data plans to self-funded

plans, companies can cut telecom costs. Companies have reported being able to migrate

about 20 percent of corporate users to self-funded plans in this way (Loucks).

The number of BYOD devices is forecasted to increase to 105 percent between 2013 and

2017 and reach nearly 405 million devices (Loucks). China will top all countries by 2016, with

166 million BYOD devices, followed by the United States and India at 108 million and 76

million, respectively. Companies in Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom will also

experience a significant expansion of employee-owned devices in the next three years (Loucks).

Therefore, this phenomenon is not limited to US companies alone but has a global effect. Just as

the Internet has taken the corporate world by storm, BYOD will remain a part of corporate

culture.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 6

Source: (Loucks)

Figure 2: Estimated BYOD Devices in Workplaces, by Country

The bar chart figure 3 below furnished a comparison of how BYOD is current being used in

corporations. The researchers have found that in most countries and companies, mobile users

who use their own devices for work own an average of 1.7 BYOD devices. This means that a

user has at least a laptop and smartphone or tablet. Because smartphone capabilities have

improved in recent years, smartphones are the overwhelming device of choice for BYOD users.

However, with popularity of Apple’s IPad among consumers today, the number of mobile users

using it for work has risen to fifty-six (56) percent across all countries, showing how vital these

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 7

devices have become. The percentage of mobile users who use their own laptops for work is still

high at (37 percent) and well established across all countries, according Loucks (Loucks).

Source:(Loucks)

Figure 3: A chart comparing the Use of Laptops, Smartphones, and Tablets by Users at

Workplace, by Country.

Who is Who in BYOD Adoption?

The Case of Intel

The success story of BYOD is Intel. Intel, an engineering organization, was one of the

early adopters of the BYOD, which has seen immediate benefits of its implementation. The

question is how they did it. In recent article in InfoWorld magazine, Glen Gruman stated that

“Intel’s productivity has increased by 57 extra minutes per BYOD employee, and that’s $150

million per year, a whopping cost saving” (Gruman, 2012). The savings Intel gained from the

implementation of BYOD are impressive indeed. According to Gruman, this savings means,

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 8

“Intel gets $3 in return for every $1 invested in supporting consumerization . . .  that means a

return of about $7,500 per BYOD employee for a cost of $2,500 per employee to enable,

manage, and secure. Intel does this without imposing draconian technology restrictions on users”

(Gruman, 2012).

Intel accomplished this because it has instituted a concept called “trust user.” This means

providing a degree of trust based on the users in the organization. Intel figured out how much it

can trust each person, and then extended that trust accordingly. This trust bestowed in users

means that they are expected to do the right thing no matter the device, app, or storage system

used (Gruman, 2012). The real dilemma here is that no security administrator or expert actually

trusts end users.

Intel uses technology to help protect information security. It deploys mobile device

management (MDM) tools to make sure that devices conform to basic policies such as enforcing

the use of passwords and encryption (Gruman, 2012). This enforcement alleviated the fear over

lost devices, and as do the controls for remote wipe when devices with sensitive data were lost.

Intel uses application development tools that let it embed and manage information permissions in

internal apps such as the ones allowing employees to access their payroll information, which it

provides to PCs, Macs, mobile devices, and Web browsers (Gruman, 2012).

Intel's focus is not on device-level tools but the information. The best way to ensure that

information does not end up in the wrong hands, is to control access in the first place. Intel

adopted the notion of “trust zones.” A trust zone in the words of Gruman is “essentially a

classification for information access” (Gruman, 2012). For example, a CIO has the highest level

of information accessibility. He/she could essentially access information in any zone wherever

he/she may be in Intel's Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters or any other trusted environment.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 9

Nevertheless, if the CIO connects from, say a hotel overseas, she loses access to the top trust

zone's information because she is connecting from a lower trust zone -- despite her credentials

(Gruman, 2012). This approach limits access to sensitive information before it gets to a

smartphone, tablet, Mac, PC, or whatever. This upfront limit removes many concerns over what

happens to information once it reaches a device -- it only gets there if the device, context, and

user are all trusted (Gruman, 2012). On the surface, this sounds like simple strategy to anyone

reading it but a nightmare to implement it in organizations, especially when the IT department

staffs are not reasonably familiar with the technology.

The Dark Side of “BYOD”

Security

Security is a great concern to most organizations or companies because it applies to all

aspects of technologies that are utilized today. The acceptance of mobile devices in workplaces

has increased the chance of security incidents. The chance of security incident is enhanced for an

obvious reason and that employees’ personal devices are portable and could be carried around ...

this means some of the devices will inevitably be lost or stolen (Jones, 2015). A lost device can

pose very real risks to companies’ data. Furthermore, these devices comes with add-on

capabilities like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi networks that are considered not secure. These capabilities

expose their vulnerabilities and open up opportunities for hackers. The vulnerability is worsened

by the fact that half of US employees report storing work-related data on their personal mobile

device(s)—even when there is no BYOD policy (Jones, 2015). Imagine this scenario: an

employee who uses BYOD one day while in a rush to get home forgets to turn off a Bluetooth on

a device and dashes to catch a metro in New York. How many people do you think will have the

ability to exploit what is in that device? The answer is everyone that has a phone or tablet. If this

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 10

sounds scary then yes, it is. If the number of people who own these devices can connect to

company networks is 60 percent, then there is undeniably a scary security situation in hand

(Jones, 2015).

“The lack of policy clarity — and the sheer absence of policy in many cases — have led

to security problems,” says Loucks. New threats to the security of company data from viruses,

malware, and network intrusion is by far the biggest downside of BYOD identified by many

researchers (Brown). The perceived danger of BYOD to corporate network security is likely a

major reason that companies in Europe have not embraced the trend as fully as others. With the

exception of China, European countries are the most concerned with the negative effects of

BYOD on the security of corporate networks. Interestingly, the concern over network security

has not made Chinese companies reluctant to embrace BYOD, since they believe the benefits far

outweigh the potential costs (Loucks).

Webroot (a private company that provides Internet security for consumers and

businesses) stated, in 2014, that “out of the 2,100 individuals surveyed, 78 percent were using

their own personal devices as part of a BYOD work policy. . . 64 percent of those personal-

device users admitted to using only the security installed when the device was purchased”

(Jones, 2015). According to Brandon Jones, “there is a wide spread disregard of security

considerations among corporate employees because just 30 percent reported using a PIN, while

the other 44 percent employ a combination of more complex password and pin and the

remaining 26 percent of the respondents have nothing in place to prevent unauthorized access to

their mobile device” (Jones, 2015). Furthermore, this study reveals, “employees between 30 and

44 years of age are among the lowest percentage of password users”—instead opting to use less

sophistical approaches like swipe patterns or facial recognition features to lock their mobile

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 11

devices (Jones, 2015). The lack of sophistication in security by most employees across

organizations and the demand for BYOD ready devices by the same employees put corporate

data in a great risk.

Consequently, one of the most important security tools for mobile devices that hold

company data is the ability to remotely wipe sensitive information in the event a device is lost or

stolen. This action is meant to take care of the problem relating to poor device security but the

lack of remote wipe capabilities in some of the devices that employees use means that a very

large percentage of mobile devices used in BYOD scenarios are putting company data and

network resources at significant risk (Jones, 2015). On the contrary, if companies try to use this

ability to protect their data, they invite a lawsuit from the affected party. For example, when

sensitive company information is embedded onto a personal device and the owner of that device

quits or is fired, making sure all company data is extracted from the privately owned cell phone

or tablet can pose an array of legal issues. Companies in the past have been sued for wiping

company data from personal devices where important personal data, such as photos and personal

documents, were inadvertently wiped away as well (Jones, 2015).

According to James Bourne, “Two in three employed Americans do not have remote

wipe activated on their smartphones, or are aware of its existence” (Bourne, 2014). To me that

is an alarming statistic pulled from a Bitdefender survey of over 1000 US Internet users aged 18

or over during August 2014. The study, conducted by Millward Brown on behalf of Bitdefender,

again highlights the need for security education among employees who bring their own devices

to work. Perhaps the most worrying aspect, however, is that even if employees gets clued in on

what is going on, they either forget or simply do not care about the ramifications – and that could

spell disaster for your business (Bourne, 2014). The study assessed workers’ BYOD security

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 12

preferences on whether their device was employer-owned or personally owned. Remarkably,

some figures turned out the same; 45.6% respondents in both categories admitted they did not

remotely wipe any of their personal devices, and 21.4% on both sides said they did not know

(Bourne, 2014).

In addition, in 2013, Varonis, a computer Security firm conducted a survey to gauge the

adoption and usage patterns of personal devices in corporate settings, and to look at security

implications of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. The results of the survey were

shocking. According to Varonis, almost 74% of respondents had access to corporate data from

their personal devices—either through a formal or informal BYOD policy and only 26% had an

official policy forbidding personal device (Sobers). The study found that 50% said they lost a

device with important data on it, and more worrisome, 22% of our respondents reported that a

lost device had created security implications (Sobers). In addition, 13% said they did not have

the most basic security measure in place: device-level password protection (Sobers).

On a global scale, according to Craig Scroggie, “55 percent of Australian businesses

found tackling mobility somewhat to extremely challenging and 43 percent identified mobile

devices as one of their top three IT risks”(Scroggie, 2012). The concerns are wide-ranging, from

lost or stolen devices, data leakage, unauthorized access to corporate resources and the spread of

malware infections from mobile devices to the company network. With mobile devices being

used to access business data, the cost of security incidents can also be significant. The average

annual cost of mobile incidents for Australian enterprises, including data loss, damage to the

brand, productivity loss, and loss of customer trust was $172,000 (Scroggie, 2012).

As these examples from various studies and surveys from security firms and security

professional have shown, security is and will be a number one headache for companies

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 13

considering implementing BYOD. Protecting company data on employees’ own devices will

undoubtedly costs the company both financial resources and human resources

Costs

BYOD could be costly to the company and these costs could be directly due to

implementations or indirectly due to ligation. For example, in August of 2012, a California

appeals court ruled that employers must reimburse employees for work-related calls made on the

employees’ personal cell phone (Jones, 2015). In addition, attempting to execute guidelines and

security measures for a vast-array of devices could end up costing far more for a business than

what was initially perceived when the BYOD system was implemented. Secondly, exempt

employees, who are authorized to use their personal devices for work-related tasks, worsen the

problem; this practice can cause trouble with HR, specifically, and with a company, in general.

The perfect examples of this, is an expecting employee. If this employee during the leave of

absence uses her own device to check and respond to work email, legally, this employee is

considered to have performed company-related work for longer than a 'De minimis' amount of

time -- meaning longer than a few minutes (Jones, 2015). In this situation, that employee could,

conceivably be eligible to a full week’s salary even if worktime amounted to a mere 4-5 minutes.

This type of scenario could turn into a legal nightmare. In addition, working after hours on a

personal mobile-device may make a company liable for paying the employee overtime (Jones,

2015). Therefore, BYOD in one way or another causes company money. In this case, if

employees are not compensated for the work they have done, they have a legal ground to sue the

company and win.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 14

Strain on IT Departments

Although security topped the negative effects of BYOD, a strain on IT department

budgets and the staff’s time is also a big concern.  When companies open the floodgates and

allow virtually any personal device to be part of the BYOD paradigm, it can create havoc for IT

departments.  It wastes IT Support staff time that could have been used to research how an

organization can benefit from using technology effectively. The staff’s valuable time is spent

adding or removing devices from an already secured network due to an upgrade of an

employees’ device or simply replacing a defective one. In a nutshell, this wasted time costs

organizations money. The problem IT personnel are encountering is attempting to figure out how

to permit employees to access all data necessary while keeping that data out of harm’s way.

Because of the lack of standard agreed-upon policies in BYOD environments for maintaining

data security, the IT team’s time and human resources are consumed at the expense of the

company (Jones, 2015).

Privacy

“Many employees, who might be part of a BYOD policy, worry about their personal

privacy. The laptop they might use for work purposes would be the same one used for logging

onto Facebook or surfing the web, etc. It makes sense that a number of employees might feel

wary of their company having the capability to gain access to their personal passwords and

intimate information of all types”(The3DMaN, 2014). The term “spying” might not ever be said

out loud, but if staffers were to feel that spying was real in their minds, it would create a lack of

trust and uneasiness for some(The3DMaN, 2014). That would certainly not make for an overall

positive work environment.

As mentioned earlier, one of the most important security tools for mobile devices that

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 15

store company data is the ability to remotely wipe sensitive information in the event a device is

lost or stolen. Companies that have incorporated BYOD in their networks require a special

software programs to be downloaded to personal devices to enable them to be remotely wiped of

data if necessary -- if a tablet were stolen, for example. The idea of giving control of one’s

personal device to an employer increased the fear of having personal data wiped out. It feels like

you are constantly under the watchful eyes of a big brother. Therefore companies need of

protecting their data clashes with employees’ need of privacy (The3DmaN, 2014).

Loss of wages

On average, most employees who used company provided electronics, turn them off and

put them away when they arrive home, or are not on call. Having access to your work email and

information on your personal phone, tablet or computer changes this. When a new email, text or

phone call comes in during off hours to company provided electronics, most people respond the

following business or work day because that is when they turn on their devices or log into their

computers. However, with BYOD, most dedicated employees will take time out of their personal

life to promptly respond because it’s right there in front them and it’s easy to do so. Most of the

time employees do not report the personal time used for responding to work messages into their

weekly hours. Most employees say, “Well, it was only five minutes” or “I can’t put only five

minutes on a time sheet”(The3DmaN, 2014). All that time adds up without noticing it. If every

employee were to spend five minutes each of personal time unreported on a time sheet, that gives

a company one extra hour of productivity for every twelve employees – all at no cost to the

company. That adds up to a lot of lost wages and personal time to an employee over the lifetime

of a career (The3DmaN, 2014).

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 16

Workplace Morale and Immobility

The presence of BYOD in an organization could lead to a decline in employees’ overall

happiness outside of work. Taking away the time that employees could spent with families and

friends gives them the feeling they are always at work and on call. Even if an employee can force

himself or herself not to respond to work related messages when on personal time, just knowing

a message from work came in puts it in the back of the mind and leaves the employee wondering

what the message was or what it is about. If they did read the message but still have the

willpower not to respond, then they are stuck thinking about how to respond when they start

work again. This takes precious, irreplaceable time away from one’s personal life (BYOD Has

Negative Impact on Employees | The3DmaN, 2014).

Health concerns

Mobile devices have made employees immobile. With cloud computing and wireless

communications, nearly everything is doable on mobile devices, giving people less incentive to

get up and move around. This inactivity by the employees can lead to some major health

problems such as diabetes, back problems, hypertension, depression and obesity (Delgado,

2014). In addition, smartphone users may also develop a condition called de Quervain syndrome,

which also goes by the name of Text Thumb or BlackBerry Thumb (Delgado). This is where

tendonitis forms in the thumbs due to frequent rapid texting. If you couple that with eyestrain

from staring at a small screen, smartphones can end up causing unnecessary pain for employees.

In addition, laptops can lead to posture problems. Many workers now use laptops to perform

their usual duties instead of a desktop keyboard, and this can affect workers’ necks, backs, hands,

and shoulders (Delgado, 2014). These negative effects on health may even end up negating the

productivity benefits that come from BYOD.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 17

Conclusion

According to Andy Patrizio, “Gartner said companies need to find the right level of

support for BYOD programs to take advantage of the potential cost savings. Beyond the

hardware, companies have to set the appropriate level of reimbursement for voice and data cost

and despite the challenges, 90% of organizations will support some aspect of BYOD by 2017”

(Patrizio, 2014). Furthermore, companies have varying degrees of maturity in adoption of

BYOD; Patrizio predicts that by 2018, the number of employee-owned devices used for work

will double from current levels than enterprise-owned devices (Patrizio, 2014). With improved

mobile policy and cost-reduction strategies, companies could reap a wealth of benefits from

implementing BYOD. Many companies are already benefitting from this new trend in the

workplace, and one of those companies is Intel, which has successfully implemented BYOD in

its entire network. The success of Intel has will entice other companies to follow suit.

On the other hand, our obsession with connection and addiction to mobile phones and

email will intensify. The obsession and addiction has serious consequences such as security risk,

various effects on employees’ health, privacy concerns, implementation and litigation costs and

strain on IT department’s budgets and workplace moral and immobility, and employees’ wage

lost. Some of these consequences have a lasting effect on both the corporations and its

employees. In my opinion, these problems are exacerbated by this society’s obsession with

speed. The idea of “I need it and I need it now” contributes to the rise of this phenomena we now

call BYOD.

As the 2016 election campaign gets under way, we will have to wait and see if Hillary

Clinton will be the first politician to be a victim of poor BYOD implementation. I have

discussed this case in the appendix.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 18

References

Alfano, J. (2012 ). GoSpotCheck. BYOD debates are misguided: Retrieved from

http://www.gospotcheck.com/2012/11/28/byod-debates-are-misguided/

Bourne, J. (2014). Employees are still lax on BYOD risks, survey reveals. Retrieved from

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THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 20

Appendix:

Hillary Clinton E-mail Scandal; Lessons and How to Avoid It

In recent months and if you happen to follow American politics, you may have heard of “Hillary

emailgate” as newscasters call it. Hillary Clinton’s email scandal is a prime example of BYOD

gone wrong.

Anyone interested in BYOD is cautiously warned to follow these simple rules strictly and with

due diligence. The most important technological principle to keep in mind when planning to

deploy BYOD in your organization is KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

1. Have a clearly defined policy for using personal email

Clinton claims that using personal email was allowed by the State Department. You probably

already have a policy about whether employees may use personal email accounts for work

purposes. Clinton's use of personal email servers is unusual, however, and you may need to

address it specifically in your policy in case anyone is inspired to emulate her.

2. Make business email easy

Clinton's reluctance to juggle two separate devices is a fundamental motivation behind the

BYOD movement. Whether the employer provides the mobile device and allows personal email

to be used, or employees are allowed to use their personal mobile device for business purposes, it

has to be easy to use the business apps or tools. When things start getting too complicated, users

like Clinton opt for loopholes and workarounds instead.

3. Segregate personal and business data

Clinton also stated, “no one wants their personal emails made public, and I think most people

understand that and respect that privacy.” Clinton was defending why she chose to delete certain

emails rather than providing the entire email server archive to the State Department. Regardless

THE CONSEQUENCES OF “BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE –BYOD” TO THE NETWORK 21

of Clinton’s motivation, in a BYOD environment employees are engaged in both business and

personal matters from a single device. The company has certain rights and obligations regarding

the protection and archiving of business communications, and the company should have access

to business data from the device. The employer should not, however, have access to personal

files or communications from the device. Provide employees with a simple means of managing

both business and personal communications from one mobile device without surrendering their

privacy ( Martosko, D. (2015, March 17).