Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

Companies Let Workers Bring Their Own Devices, but at What Cost? (Video)

The trend of workers being able to use their own phones and computers for business-related tasks is undeniable.

And it brings with it a lot of benefits.

“Organizations that have embraced (bring-your-own-device programs) have reported improved productivity and employee retention, enhanced mobility, a more flexible work environment and improved IT value to the business,” PricewaterhouseCoopers notes in a recent paper.

Plus, of course, it can save companies a boatload of money.

The question, then, is if and how businesses try to secure the corporate data that is inevitably finding its way onto these devices.

That was the topic of a panel I moderated at the Bubble Over Barcelona event held last week, just outside the grounds of Mobile World Congress. Folks from Lookout Mobile Security, Box, Enterproid and Appcelerator debated the pros and cons associated with this new era of mobility.

Most of the panel and audience felt that added security was a small price to pay for the added productivity that companies get with us strapped to our smartphones.

Extra thanks to Enterproid’s Alexander Trewby for being a good sport as the audience and I grilled him on some of his less-than-popular opinions, such as the notion that businesses shouldn’t have to pay for personal phone calls or home broadband.

It was a lively discussion. And, while I can’t promise you cava or tapas, there is a YouTube video of the panel:

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik