Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Risks to Adopters and Users

Bring your own device (BYOD) policy refers to a set of regulation broadly adopted by organizations that allows employee-owned mobile devices – like as laptops, smartphones, personal digital assistant and tablets – to the office for use and connection to the organizations IT infrastructure. BYOD offers numerous benefits ranging from plummeting organizational logistic cost, access to information at any time and boosting employee’s productivity. On the contrary, this concept presents various safety issues and challenges because of its characteristic security requirements. This study explored diverse literature databases to identify and classify BYOD policy adoption issues, possible control measures and guidelines that could hypothetically inform organizations and users that adopt and implement BYOD policy. The literature domain search yielded 110 articles, 26 of them were deemed to have met the inclusion standards. In this paper, a list of possible threats/vulnerabilities of BYOD adoption were identified. This investigation also identified and classified the impact of the threats/vulnerabilities on BYOD layered components according to security standards of “FIPS Publication 199” for classification. Finally, a checklist of measures that could be applied by organizations & users to mitigate BYOD vulnerabilities using a set layered approach of data, device, applications, and people were recommended

The Marketing Concept and BYOD in the University Classroom:

For decades marketing educators have espoused the marketing concept and consumer oriented business strategies in university classrooms. In recent years, there has been a movement away from the ‘sage on the stage’ to experiential, active learning pedagogies. Those newer pedagogies often involve the use of mobile devices, including smart phones, laptops, and e-readers as academic tools for students. While such mobile devices are nearly ubiquitous on college and university campuses, an ongoing debate revolves on the distinction between owning mobile devices and whether or not students bring them to campus and use them as educational tools. In this study, we surveyed students in order to assess their attitudes towards and perceptions of a proposed BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program on campus

The Influence of BYOD on Results of Students' Learning

This work analyzes the influence and efficiency of BYOD for learning students and academic perfection. The relevance of mobile technologies for learning has been substantiated. The influence of BYOD on academic performance of undergraduate students in terms of their test scores and final course marks, as well as on quality of work on selected course projects and on level of satisfaction with the BYOD course, has been experimentally studied. It has been proved that BYOD exerts positive influence on learning and academic achievements of students measured by their academic test scores, by their final marks and quality of their classroom work, as well as that the implementation of BYOD will stimulate and motivate students, thus affecting their level of involvement and creation of independent learning. The experimental results should be used as a guide for persons making decisions as well as for practical specialists in the field of education, especially in the area of BYOD and mobile learning, which will save significant expenses for stationary learning (for instance, concerning desktop computers, projectors, etc.). Scientific novelty of the studies is that the influence of BYOD on academic performance of students in terms of their test scores and final course marks, as well as on quality of students’ work on selected course projects and on level of satisfaction with the BYOD course, has been comprehensively analyzed

The Influence of BYOD on Results of Students' Learning

This work analyzes the influence and efficiency of BYOD for learning students and academic perfection. The relevance of mobile technologies for learning has been substantiated. The influence of BYOD on academic performance of undergraduate students in terms of their test scores and final course marks, as well as on quality of work on selected course projects and on level of satisfaction with the BYOD course, has been experimentally studied. It has been proved that BYOD exerts positive influence on learning and academic achievements of students measured by their academic test scores, by their final marks and quality of their classroom work, as well as that the implementation of BYOD will stimulate and motivate students, thus affecting their level of involvement and creation of independent learning. The experimental results should be used as a guide for persons making decisions as well as for practical specialists in the field of education, especially in the area of BYOD and mobile learning, which will save significant expenses for stationary learning (for instance, concerning desktop computers, projectors, etc.). Scientific novelty of the studies is that the influence of BYOD on academic performance of students in terms of their test scores and final course marks, as well as on quality of students’ work on selected course projects and on level of satisfaction with the BYOD course, has been comprehensively analyzed

"Greening" Information Literacy Through Games

New Bulgarian University Library gradually shifts its focus toward adopting green technologies and resources for information literacy. Two new technological trends in education: BYOD (bring your own device) and games and gamification are steadily being recognized and adopted by librarians. A jQuery-generated site for mobile devices is used to gamify students' introduction to information literacy. We seek to achieve: 1. a paperless environment; 2. a dynamic and mobile access to information and feedback; 3. switching from a lecture-based teaching style to a more constructivist approach, and encourage students to build knowledge on their own while pursuing a game-like activity; 4. better interaction with lecturers in subject-based teaching. The test instruction was adopted from a library project at St. Cloud State University. The process of collaboration with campus faculty, during the test instruction presented viable opportunity to introduce paperless pedagogy and gaming, as a legitimate pedagogical practice across disciplines on campus

BYOD: Risk considerations in a South African organisation

In recent times, while numerous organisations have difficulty keeping abreast with the frequent year-on-year technology changes, their employees on the other hand, continue to bring their personal devices to work to more readily access organisational data. This concept is known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Studies have demonstrated that the introduction of BYOD commonly has a positive effect on both organisation and employees: increased optimism, job satisfaction and productivity are some of the perceived positive effects. Furthermore, BYOD can improve employees’ opportunities for mobile working and assist with the work flexibility they seek. This phenomenon, however, is still not well understood. In the South African context, this refers particularly to an inadequate understanding of risks associated with the introduction of BYOD into organisations. Some of the risks associated with this phenomenon are, for instance, related to information security, legislation and privacy issues. Hence, the intention of this research was to investigate, determine and assess BYOD risk considerations in a South African organisation. Using the available literature on this subject and an interpretative exploratory case study approach, this research explored various facets of BYOD-related risks (e.g. implementational, technological, legislation, regulation and privacy risks, human aspects and organisational concerns) as well as the impact these risks may have on both employees and an organisation. The organisation under investigation – from this point onward referred to as “Organisation A” – is a South African based information technology (IT) security consulting and service management organisation, which has seen increased expansion in its business and thus an increase in the number of its employees utilising their personal devices at the workplace. Even so, Organisation A was uncertain regarding possible risks that might hinder benefits of BYOD. Hence, this researcher defined the main research question as “What are the risks of introducing the BYOD in the South African organisation and what is an effective approach to address identified risks?”. The main objective was to identify and describe BYOD-related risks and to propose an appropriate model for addressing these risks. To answer the main research question, this researcher reviewed the applicable literature on the BYOD, including the limited South African literature pertaining to the subject. The review elicited the most common BYOD-related risks but also some models, frameworks and standards that may be applied for addressing these risks. Based on these revelations, an applicable BYOD risk management model was created and proposed. The literature review findings were subsequently tested in the empirical setting (in Organisation A) by conducting comprehensive interviews with research participants. This research adopted a qualitative approach in general and a case study methodology in particular. The collected data were analysed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), which aided in providing a comprehensive understanding of the interviewees’ responses regarding the BYOD risks. The interviewees were selected based on a purposeful (pre-defined) sampling. The results of this interpretative research suggest that the interviewees’ responses are closely aligned with the information on BYOD risks collected from the pertinent literature. The results show that successful introduction and usage of BYOD in the studied organisation requires the implementation of mixed risk management measures: technological (e.g. mobile device management and its additional components), non-technological (e.g. IT or BYOD security policies), the usage of general risk management frameworks (e.g. ISO 27001), the development of an organisational security culture and skilling of the human factor (e.g. employee awareness, training and education, for example). Additionally, it was found that participation of employees in the development of BYOD policies is an essential and effective tactic for transforming a fragile BYOD risk link (i.e. employees) into a strong risk prevention mechanism. Furthermore, this research also revealed that in the South African context, it is important that an organisation’s BYOD security policies are sound, preferably meeting the POPI Act requirements and thereby avoiding legislation risks. The contribution of this research is twofold: first academic, and second, practical. The academic contribution is realised by adding to the body of knowledge on the BYOD risks – most particularly in terms of understanding potential risks when introducing BYOD in the South African context. The practical contribution manifests through the provision of detailed risk considerations and mitigation guidelines for organisations wishing to introduce BYOD practices or considering ways to improve their current BYOD risk management strategy. It is acknowledged that this research has some limitations, particularly in regard to the limited generalisation of the findings due to the limited sample provided by only one organisation. Although the results are not necessarily applicable to other South African organisations, these limitations did not impact the relevance and validity of this research

The performativity of BYOD

Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) is a trend introduced by a large IT corporation in 2009 realised as a consequence of the consumerization of Information Technology. BYOD is described as the phenomenon of using personal mobile devices connected to corporate networks to perform work. This study aims to understand consumerization of IT and BYOD in the Tertiary Education sector, particularly the context of BYOD in universities in both the United Kingdom and Malaysia. The study will commence with a pilot case study in the Computer Science Department of a UK University to explore its current systems and support for staff and students, gathering insights on the consideration of BYOD for the department. As this is a phenomenological study, Actor Network Theory (ANT) is selected as an initial lens. This seeks to create a ‘timeless snapshot’ of phenomena in time, space and social change. This paper aims to set the scene for the study in terms of the performativity of BYOD by reviewing the literatures pertaining to the history of BYOD, and the implementation of BYOD in the commercial and education sectors

Managing and Securing Business Networks in the Smartphone Era

This paper discusses the impact of user owned mobile computing devices (smartphones, tablets, and future devices like Google Glass) on management and security of the corporate network. Personally owned portable computing devices are widely used at work and create a porous network perimeter for the enterprise network. The paper reviews corporate policies posted on websites along with research papers and corporate whitepapers to develop a comprehensive user owned mobile computing device policy. This is a rapidly evolving topic that has not been researched in the business academic literature. We survey trade journals and corporate websites for information regarding this policy and make recommendations that can be applied by business managers