POWERED BY
INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Enterprise Security
Bring Your Own Devices: The
benefits, risks and threats
/////////////////////////////
A
is not allowed, as well as the expectations
of the business in terms of security. These
policies need to be clearly communicated
to employees and security measures and
practices must be detailed with training,
where necessary.
rbor Networks has, with many peers,
been discussing Bring Your Own
Devices (BYOD) for over five years.
Bryan Hamman, Arbor Networks’ Territory
Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, says this
trend is not going away and the rise of
BYOD has been attributed to many factors,
including the introduction of next generation
office workers who don’t necessarily do their
best at work during office hours or even use
traditional devices.
“Mobile devices such as cell phones and
tablets being used for work, and therefore
requiring a link to the company server, are
increasingly prevalent,” he said. “Salesmen
not wanting to risk taking their laptops out of
office are using tablets and phones to present
in meetings. New technologies have changed
the way we interact with businesses in very
clear and beneficial ways.
“Isolating BYOD devices from high-value
systems is also recommended, but in a way
they can be used for day-to-day activities
while enforcing stricter permissions to use
other, more business critical, resources,”
said Hamman.
Bryan Hamman from Arbor Networks
“But along with these advantages come
risks, especially for companies that are not
building BYOD into their security strategies.
Firewalls and IPS devices protect the edge
from incoming threats, but these attacks
have advanced from exploit-based threats
to targeted, hidden malware that stealthily
steals private data and intellectual property. their reconnaissance in a human way to
understand your technologies, processes
and people. They will use social media
to understand your staff, affiliates and
partners, watch for press announcements
about your technology upgrades and will
then rent the equipment to craft and test
their attacks.
“With each new device that plugs into the
network comes another portal for potential
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks
and another distribution line through which
these attacks can extend their reach.” “This is incredibly sophisticated,” added
Hamman. “Gone is the concept that cyber
attackers are bored teens sitting on a LAN
in their grandma’s garage trying to cause
trouble. These attacks are planned and
launched with intention. They are out to do
as much damage to your infrastructure and
access as much sensitive data as they can in
as short a time as possible.”
Mark Campbell, Consulting Engineer for
Sub-Saharan Africa at Arbor Networks, has
previously explained the intricacies behind
cyber and DDoS attacks.
He notes that modern day foes do
things that can’t be stopped purely
with technology. For instance, they do
www.intelligentcio.com
The first step in the BYOD journey, for
companies who realise employee-owned
devices on the intranet is non-negotiable, is
to have a clear policy on what is and what
“The most important consideration of all,
however, is knowing that you can’t find
what you can’t see; solving business issues
begins with network visibility. Rather than
providing visibility and intelligence only
at the vanishing enterprise perimeter, a
BYOD empowered business must demand
pervasive visibility throughout the enterprise
and its linked devices.
“By seeing the threats throughout the
network, enterprises can detect new threats
and stop them using the right tools. It is an
enterprise wide belief, at Arbor Networks,
that the days of just stopping the threat
without context or analytics are over;
visibility and security intelligence are key.
“Enterprises can protect the business with
solutions that enable in-depth visibility into
network, application and routing traffic while
offering DDoS detection, mitigation and
reporting capabilities.
“Lastly, the solution of choice should be
extremely scalable, easily deployed and
appropriate, whether the business is a
small hosting provider with a single data
centre or a large cloud services provider
with multiple data centres and extensive
network connectivity.” n
INTELLIGENTCIO
71