Page 35 - Cyber Warnings

In addition to the proper maintenance of the devices, employees can be conscripted into the
fight against hackers and malware. The real threats for most employees aren’t from the obvious
spam, but the well-crafted spear phishing emails that are made to look like they are from an
executive asking for login details or personal data, or the important file that needs an immediate
review. Everyone likes to play detective, so rather than making employees fearful of doing the
wrong thing, show them how to identify and catch the imposters before they can unleash
ransomware, botnets or data exfiltration.

Don’t Take a Step Back

BYOD is supposed to allow people to work as they please and do away with having to use a
different OS than they prefer, or outdated, company-issued hardware. Cybersecurity measures
are meant to keep everyone and everything protected in the enterprise. In between lies
individual employees and their productivity. If BYOD improves productivity and mood, security
efforts ought to work to preserve those gains instead of adding layers that increase
inconvenience.

Every quarantined file, blocked email or slow connection frustrates employees who are simply
trying to get their job done as efficiently as possible. Employees are like water: they will find a
way around anything, especially if you block their way of working. When a business enables
existing work processes to be performed securely, employees won’t waste time looking for
workarounds, and, in return, employees will improve their productivity and refrain from creating
system vulnerabilities. When BYOD translates into stricter policies and byzantine procedures,
the benefit goes away and employees are left feeling like they’ve brought a MacBook Pro into a
Windows XP world.

BYOD is on its way to becoming the norm for many companies in the years ahead. The
challenges it introduces into the corporate IT department makes segmentation the most critical
cybersecurity area in the enterprise instead of the perimeter focus that has been prevalent for
decades. But for those who have implemented BYOD – or are thinking about making the leap –
finding the balance between security, cost and convenience is the best way to keep everyone
satisfied and secure.

About the Author

Dotan Bar Noy Lt. Commander Israel Navy. (RET) is the CEO & Co-Founder of
ReSec Technologies. He has more than 10 years of management experience in
technology and software companies. Prior to founding ReSec, he served as
Director at Issta (listed ISTA.P), CEO of G.F.A. Systems, CEO of "STUDENTS"
as well as owning a strategic management and consulting company. Dotan
holds a BA in Economics & Management from the Israel Institute of Technology
(Technion) and an MA in Law from Bar-Ilan University.

35 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – July 2016 Edition
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