{"id":60744,"date":"2022-03-23T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/?p=60744"},"modified":"2022-12-13T14:47:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T19:47:44","slug":"patch-management-byod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/patch-management-byod","title":{"rendered":"Patch Management Best Practices For BYOD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Bring your own device (BYOD)<\/a> policies are commonplace across organizations right now. This is primarily due to the rise in popularity of remote work, the logicality behind letting employees use their existing devices that they\u2019re already comfortable with, and budget considerations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n BYOD gives employees the flexibility they want to work from devices that they prefer and that they\u2019re used to, while saving the organization money that would otherwise go toward new company-owned devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While BYOD benefits<\/a> are numerous for both employees and employers, BYOD can also cause serious security concerns<\/a> when managed incorrectly. Personal devices are twice as likely<\/a> to become infected with malware than their business counterparts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Couple that with general patch management<\/a> concerns and the fact that it takes an organization an average of 97 days to apply, test, and deploy a patch to managed, corporate-owned devices<\/em>, and you can see how big of a problem this truly is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Without streamlined and automated patch management across your entire fleet of devices, including devices under the BYOD category, your organization has a much higher risk of experiencing a data breach and failing compliance audits \u2014 both of which can be devastating to your business if you haven’t assessed patch management costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your critical resources are only as secure as the infrastructure that surrounds them, so putting a holistic BYOD patch management system in place is integral to the overall security of your organization. This article will dive into the challenges associated with BYOD patch management, how to manage patching, JumpCloud\u2019s solution, and BYOD patch management best practices. Use this information to proactively put a patching framework in place for your organization before<\/em> you experience a security incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patch management is difficult in organizations where the proper products and processes aren\u2019t in place. New layers of difficulty are added when you have a cross-OS environment, remote devices, personal devices, or a mixture of all of these to manage and secure. Many organizations don\u2019t have the infrastructure and tools in place to manage this type of device heterogeneity, let alone properly manage patching across this kind of fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This puts businesses in a tough spot, wondering how they can holistically manage a diverse spread of devices without relying on users to properly patch their devices when and how they\u2019re supposed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At one point in time, manual patch management was possible, and it worked for the most part. Devices were primarily Windows, they were on-site, and less software existed. Now, IT professionals will cringe (to put it lightly) at the thought of manual, or one-device-at-a-time<\/em>, patch management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s digital landscape calls for automated and flexible patch management processes that work on different operating systems no matter the location (in-office or remote) or ownership of the device (personal or company-owned) to create a truly secure environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A modern patch management solution needs to:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Without a proper BYOD patch management tool and process in place, your organization is far more susceptible to cyberattacks. New attack vectors are created each time a patch is missed or implemented late. Even if every other security practice is followed by employees using personal devices for work, unpatched software creates substantial data breach risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n BYOD patch management is not a security concern that can go overlooked. To ensure patches are pushed to personal devices in a timely manner, you need to utilize a tool that has automation and scheduling capabilities. Once you have established the patch management tool that you\u2019re going to use across your BYOD fleet, use these best practices to develop an effective patch management process<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though having a tool in place that can handle patch management across both BYOD and company-owned devices is ideal, it\u2019s not always feasible. If this is the case for your organization, the key to following patch management best practices lies in establishing regular touchpoints with employees to remind them that patches are available, as well as provide them with simple how-to guides for applying them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s more, training employees on the importance of patching their devices and the software on them helps establish buy-in, as does having them sign a BYOD policy agreement that goes into more detail on the expectations behind patching and updating personal devices. If possible, you can remote into employee machines to help patch the operating system<\/a> or other pieces of software, especially when the employee is not tech savvy and\/or the patch is high priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBYOD Patch Management Challenges <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How Do I Manage BYOD Patching?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Using Patch Management to Keep BYOD Secure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Best Practices for a BYOD Patch Management Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Without Patch Management Software<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
With Patch Management Software<\/h3>\n\n\n\n