The History Of Using Smartphones

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Smartphone ownership is growing at an astonishing rate. By the third quarter of 2011, 708 million smartphones were in use. One year later, that number grew by 300 million (Ramanathan, 2012). In 2012, smartphone owners became the majority of the mobile market and most smartphone owners say they could not "live without" them.

With the increasing capabilities of smartphones and other mobile devices, increasing numbers of employees are using their personal devices for work related tasks. "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) has become a hot topic within the last few years as companies and their IT departments try to merge employees’ mobility with company security. This paper examines why BYOD is such a burning issue, specific concerns related to BYOD, and how companies are instituting BYOD policies.

Literature Review

There appears to be three driving forces for companies to adopt BYOD: reduce company spending, satisfy employees’ demand for choice, and boost productivity. Citrix introduced their BYOD policy in 2008 and reported a 20 percent savings over the first three years (Flinders, 2012). Dysart reports that 48 percent of employees wanting BYOD are willing to pay for their smartphone as long as they can choose the phone and another nine percent are willing to contribute to the cost. Employees are also willing to pay all or part of the monthly data plan in return for being able to use the phone of their choice (Dysart, 2012). With employees paying the costs, companies save money.

Good Technology reports that 50 percent of companies with BYOD policies require employees to pay for their own devices and data plans and the employees happily do so (State of BYOD Report, 2013). The convenience and flexibility attained with mobile devices are the common draws to BYOD. Employees are already using smartphones and other mobile devices in their personal lives. Employees regularly synchronize their smart phones with corporate e-mail servers to keep in constant contact. And, according to Credent Technologies, smart phones are the second most common data storage device (with flash drives being the first) (Chigona, Robertson, & Mimbi, 2012). They want the convenience of only one device and they would prefer it to be one of their choosing.

One study found that employees felt a greater sense of self-worth and prestige when using their smartphones for work related tasks. Workers indicated that greater mobility allowed them to be more professional and, in turn, receive greater responsibilities. The same study indicated that a primary reason employees use their own personal devices is that organizations typically only issue mobile devices to management (Chigona, Robertson, & Mimbi, 2012). The sense of prestige may come from the ability to identify with upper level by conducting work tasks on the go.

Whatever the reasons, BYOD is growing. Dell recently released results from a survey of nearly 1,500 IT executives. The survey found that nearly 70 percent of the companies consider that BYOD can advance their work practices. Fifty-nine percent are confident they would be competitively disadvantaged without BYOD (Jennifer Bernas, 2013). Even the White House has recommendations and guidelines to assist federal agencies in implementing BYOD programs (Robert Hughes, 2013).

BYOD may add a great deal of benefits for both employers and employees; but, it also adds a great deal of risk. The Information Security Forum included the consumerization of IT in its list of the top five security risks for 2013 (Bordoloi, 2012).

In a poll of 400 employees, 51 percent reported using a personal laptop or tablet to access company computers. However, 84 percent reported using their smart phones for work. Forty-seven percent of those using personal devices for work admitted to not using passwords on the devices and when they were informed that a strong password was eight or more mixed characters and symbols, just half of those that used passwords reported using strong passwords (Maurer, 2012). The same poll reports high percentages for other risky behaviors. Half of the respondents reported clicking on social media links. Thirty-two percent stated they had used unsecured, public Wi-Fi networks. Nearly 40 percent admitted they had clicked on links within unsolicited e-mails.

As employees expose companies to the security risks of mobile devices, companies are coming up with BYOD policies to protect their assets. Common components of BYOD policies include restricting the types of devices allowed, requiring mobile device management (MDM) software, and dual-identity products that allow smart phones to segregate work and personal information (Kharif, 2013). With the high-rate of stolen or lost devices, another common component of BYOD policies is a remote-wipe agreement. If an incorrect password is entered repeatedly, all data on the device is automatically wiped as Mimecast CEO Peter Bauer experienced when his 5-year-old daughter played with his smart phone while the family vacationed in South Africa causing him to lose all the vacation pictures he had taken (Neagle, 2012).

Despite the growing number of corporations embracing BYOD, there is a larger number that haven’t gotten on the BYOD bandwagon. Insight EMEA recently reported that 79 percent of surveyed IT managers have no plans to implement a BYOD policy (Wilson, 2012). Other research reports 48 percent of IT managers surveyed claimed their companies would not authorize BYOD programs. The same report reported that 57 percent stated that employees used unauthorized devices to access work computers and data (Flinders, 2012).

Discussion

BYOD is a valuable commodity for many employees and can be a productive tool for companies. An employee that is allowed to use their own device is more likely to be available outside of work when they are needed. E-mails are attended to quicker and other minor tasks can be accomplished during down-time. However, most companies have employees using their own devices whether they have specific BYOD policies or not.

Conclusion

Employees regularly put company data at risk. Both authorized and unauthorized BYOD bring risk. Company e-mail is often accessed through web-browsers at home and company documents downloaded to the family PC. Employees also use personal USB devices to transfer documents between home and work. Policies alone are not capable of protecting valuable company data. IT departments must implement better security devices if the data is to be safeguarded.