The Federal CIO Council Offers Key Considerations for BYOD in Agencies

While they admit it is not comprehensive the Federal CIO Council says that their latest document, Bring Your Own Device: A Toolkit to Support Federal Agencies Implementing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Programs, is meant to act as a guide providing key areas for consideration for agencies contemplating implementation of BYOD programs. The key considerations include topics of cost/benefit analysis, security and policy obstacles and roles and responsibilities.

The inclusions of successful efforts of BYOD pilots or programs include the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the State ofDelaware. These case studies and BYOD policy examples are said to be a great starting point, but readers should keep in mind that the programs are not fully completed and continue to change and adapt to new technology.

The Federal CIO Council suggests three main approaches that should be considered while developing you BYOD programs:

“Virtualization: Provide remote access to computing resources so that no data or corporate application processing is stored or conducted on the personal device;

Walled garden: Contain data or corporate application processing within a secure application on the personal device so that it is segregated from personal data; and

Limited separation: Allow comingled corporate and personal data and/or application processing on the personal device with policies enacted to ensure minimum security controls are still satisfied.”

Click here to read the full BYOD Toolkit.