We All Know BYOB, But What Is BYOD?

Milwaukee WI

16 August, 2021

2:31 PM

Description

Our names are Jake Polzin, President and Toomas Mitt, Founder of TBG Technologies, an IT support company since 2004. The reason TBG Technologies exists is that we believe small companies are ignored. We are talking about the really small businesses. Those with ten or fewer employees usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to technology support. They have the same goals as big corporations. They have the same technology issues. But they have a tough time getting good, reliable help. We All Know BYOB, but what is BYOD and why should we care? When small computers began appearing on desktops, there was no internet. Cell phones were not around and monitors, if they were even available, were big hulking TV-like boxes that only displayed text in green, amber or white. I swear I got sunburned sitting in front of them! Data security was pretty easy back then. Since the computers were not connected to anything outside of the office, the big security risk was someone stealing a whole PC or maybe copying some data to a floppy disk (remember those?). Of course, it's a different world today. Almost every computer is connected to the internet somehow. Data is passed around the world in milliseconds with ease. USB (flash) drives are available for pennies and have a huge amount of space. Every smart network is set up with devices and software that enhance security. Firewalls and anti-virus programs are now familiar to even the smallest computer installations. And these are constantly being updated to keep pace with ever-evolving external threats. Sounds pretty secure, right? Well, it is – up to a point. But there is a huge security hole that most companies ignore. It's the threat presented by what is called "Bring Your Own Device" or BYOD products. A BYOD object is a data device that users own and then connect to the company network. At first, these were just laptops owned mostly by salespeople. They were expensive, so most people did not have them. But today, a very good laptop can be had for less than $400 new and good used systems for half that. Laptops are everywhere. What happens when an employee brings in their own laptop and connects to the office wireless network? They bring with them any security flaw they have. If they were surfing the Web at home and picked up a virus on their laptop, then bring it into the office, that virus now has a whole new group of systems to infect. That's bad enough, but it gets worse. Every device, from cell phones and tablets to eBook readers like Amazon's Kindle, can introduce all sorts of problems to an otherwise very secure network. It's like kids in kindergarten. One kid comes in with a sniffle and soon the flu is being passed around to all the kids and even to the parents. A good network administrator will lock down the network and only allow known devices to connect. If an employee wants to use their own laptop, it would have to be registered first. Do you provide WiFi access at your office for guests? There's another problem. A really good network administrator will create a "Guest" WiFi network that only allows access to the internet, blocking any access to the internal systems. By the way, a "Guest" network that does not have a password is an open invitation to hackers and scammers to use YOUR internet connection to send out potentially millions of spam emails or use it as a launchpad to hack into other systems. Do you know what happens when your internet provider sees a ton of spam emails coming from your internet connection? It shuts you down. And you can find your legitimate email being blocked because your internet connection has been identified as a source of spam. A great network administrator will change the password on that guest network regularly, just in case. These are simple actions that can prevent serious headaches. BYOB can be the start of a fun party – BYOD can cause some serious SNAFUs! All in all, and despite all the warnings and dire predictions you hear about computers and security, the world of small business computing has changed significantly for the better over the last decade. We invite your comments and thoughts about the future. We can't wait to see what is coming up next! Jake Polzin is the President and Toomas Mitt is the Founder of TBG Technologies, located at 11300 W. Greenfield Avenue, West Allis, Wis. 53214. Tom can be reached at [email protected] and Jake can be reached at [email protected]. www.tbgtechnologies.com We Make Technology Behave.