A Real-World Example – BYOD A Primer (pt.3)

I did promise you that today I would make a start on what a BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) policy would look like. However, regular readers will know I can get distracted easily… The distraction this time came from one of our members of staff who reminded me that we developed a BYOD policy for a client a few years ago, and we implement a similar policy for our WordPress/hosting clients on a regular basis.

Here is that real world example.

A Quick example of a real-world BYOD solution

I have spent a lot of time with our WordPress specialist discussing and exploring the cyber security of the world’s most popular website platform and one of the issues we had to solve in a BYOD context was the use of the WordPress app on iPhones.

The first step we take when we configure WordPress securely for a client is to determine the roles of each user, set those roles and enforce multi-factor authentication for everyone without exception.

But that did not work for one particular client. Here is the scenario:

• A senior member of their team blogged continuously from their iPhone.
• They only used the PC occasionally for blogging and WordPress administration – consequently, they needed full administrator privileges.
• The MFA solution did not work on the WordPress app on the iPhone – so either they had to disable MFA or stop using the iPhone – now this was a senior member of staff who wanted both! (Remember what I said about managing expectations.)

The solution in the end was simple – we gave this person two accounts, an admin account they use on their PC and an author account they use on their iPhone.

The original BYOD Article

This excerpt was originally published over on CyberAwake over two years ago – and this BYOD policy has stood the test of time with real world clients. This is an example of how you need to think about what you want to achieve with BYOD and then how to deliver that sensibly.

Next…

Elements of a policy.

Further Reading

Are you using Bring Your Own Device – BYOD – to save money? – CyberAwake

Photo by Snapwire