Secure Unmanaged Devices to Make Them Business Drivers

It’s likely that your company employs people (whether full-time or contractors) that regularly access sensitive business information from personal devices. These devices are referred to as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), which are personal devices being used to connect to organizational networks and access work-related systems.

First, let’s consider the risks, then we can focus on how to secure unmanaged devices.  

Risks for Unmanaged Devices 

How many unmanaged devices connect to your network systems? What kind of data can employees access? How do you manage access permissions?

If you’re not already asking yourself those questions, then don’t delay another second because mismanaging aspects like those can put your company at risk in a number of ways.

• Shadow IT, which is the use of information technology systems, devices, software, applications, and services without explicit IT department approval.
• Exposure of sensitive information from a device unlocked in public places, allowing unauthorized people access to sensitive information.
• Unauthorized access and potentially giving the wrong people access to view and distribute critical data.
• Unsecured Wi-Fi access that makes devices vulnerable to data breaches.
• Device infection that could compromise company data and disrupt operations on a large scale. 

How to Secure Access from Unmanaged Devices

One of the best ways to protect against those risks is with Forcepoint Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), which helps safeguard data in any cloud app. And by ‘any,’ we don’t mean just managed devices. It gives control over managed and unmanaged devices with agentless deployment that enables BYOD and secure access for contractors.

More specifically, deploying a reverse proxy-based CASB should be your go-to method for securing unmanaged devices. If you want to go deeper on this topic, check out Aditya's Three Types of CASB post.

Think of a reverse proxy CASB as a defender waiting to make an interception. This type of CASB sits between a user and a cloud application. It then intercepts and inspects the request before it reaches the cloud application.  

Reserve proxy CASBs round out the defensive strategy with real-time protection and monitoring along with response handling. Since reserve proxy CASBs are primarily used for securing unmanaged devices without installations, they’re ideal for protecting data in cloud applications.

While any unmanaged device can put your company’s systems at risk of data loss, protecting them the right way helps make BYOD devices what they should be: business drivers as cloud application needs grow. 

Forcepoint can help. Talk to an expert today.