Why IT Leaders Need a New Approach for Securing their BYOD Workforce

The landscape of remote work has evolved dramatically, bringing both opportunities and challenges for organizations. For IT leaders, securing remote workers, especially those using personal devices, has become a significant concern. The experiences of a leading financial management firm highlight the pressing need for a new approach to securing remote work. 

Here are the critical challenges they faced

Diverse Device Management

Like many organizations, this firm has a mix of different types of geographically dispersed remote workers – in their case employees and advisors – using a mix of company-owned and personal devices. This diversity makes it challenging to maintain uniform security controls. And for many, buying, shipping and securing laptops has become a large burden. IT teams struggle to ensure that all devices comply with the organization’s security policies, leading to potential vulnerabilities. For IT leaders, this means constantly firefighting to protect data across a fragmented device landscape.

Stringent Security and Compliance Requirements

Compliance with regulatory standards, such as those enforced by the SEC, is non-negotiable for financial institutions. This financial management firm needed to implement stringent data loss prevention (DLP) measures to protect sensitive client data and ensure they met FINRA rule 3110 for Supervision. For organizations with remote workers, this rule presents unique challenges and necessitates specific measures to maintain compliance. The complexity of managing these requirements across a decentralized workforce adds to the burden on IT departments.

Limited Device Control and Continuous Monitoring

The firm’s approach of using security solutions like Endpoint Protection and Endpoint Detection & Response, as well as other tools provided some monitoring capabilities but fell short of comprehensive coverage and created tool sprawl. While manual security checks were performed during onboarding, continuous enforcement was lacking. This gap left the organization exposed to potential security breaches. For IT leaders, the challenge is finding a solution that provides continuous, automated monitoring and control without being resource-intensive.

Evaluating VDI Solutions

Many organizations consider Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions to centralize and secure remote work. However, this firm’s experience with Citrix and Amazon WorkSpaces highlighted significant drawbacks. VDI solutions often come with high costs, management complexities, and performance issues, such as latency and peripheral compatibility problems. These issues make VDI a less-than-ideal solution for organizations looking for a seamless and cost-effective approach.

Ensuring Secure Data Access and Movement

One of the critical challenges is preventing data exfiltration while allowing remote workers to access necessary resources securely. The firm needed a solution that provided seamless access to both cloud and local applications while ensuring data remained secure and compliant. For IT leaders, balancing ease of access with stringent security measures is a delicate act that requires a robust yet flexible solution.

Scalability and Management Overhead

As organizations grow, the need for scalable solutions becomes paramount. This firm experienced rapid advisor onboarding, which their current IT infrastructure struggled to support. A scalable solution that minimizes management overhead is essential. IT leaders need tools that not only scale with organizational growth but also simplify the administration and support of remote work environments.

The Need for a New Approach

Given these challenges, it’s clear that traditional methods and tools were insufficient for this financial firm to secure remote work effectively. For this firm, and many others, a new approach is needed—one that is cost-effective, lightweight, scalable, and integrates seamlessly with existing systems. A modern solution should focus on creating a secure workspace on personal devices, ensuring compliance without compromising performance. 

Here’s what an ideal solution should offer:

1. Unified Device Management: A software-based approach that provides consistent security controls across all unmanaged or personal devices
2. Robust Security and Compliance: Built-in DLP measures that enforce compliance with regulatory standards, such as disabling unauthorized file sharing, blocking websites or preventing screenshots.
3. Continuous Monitoring and Control: Automated, continuous monitoring that ensures security policies are always enforced, reducing the need for manual checks.
4. Seamless Data Access: Secure, containerized environments that allow remote workers to access cloud and local applications without risking data security.
5. Scalability and Low Management Overhead: Solutions that are easy to deploy, manage, and scale, supporting rapid onboarding and minimizing additional workload for IT teams.
6. Flexible Integration: Compatibility with existing local applications like Office 365, Zoom, Slack as well as cloud-based applications, ensuring a smooth transition and integration.
7. Optimal Performance and Privacy: Ensure that user’s privacy on their personal devices is maintained while providing optimal performance. A familiar experience that allows them to work on applications locally without remotely delivered desktops ensures 

Conclusion

The evolving remote work landscape demands a new approach to security. IT leaders must look beyond traditional methods and consider modern, software-based solutions that provide robust security, compliance, and ease of management. By addressing these challenges, organizations can ensure their remote workforces remain secure, productive, and compliant in today’s dynamic environment.

If you’d like to learn more about how Venn can help businesses enable BYOD workforces, removing the burden of buying and securing laptops or dealing with virtual desktops, you can learn more here.