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IT managers are just getting used to BYOD and juggling the benefits with the attendant security risks but it's not time to relax. The latest Bring Your Own phenomenon could cause even more headaches for the IT department: Bring Your Own Network (BYON).

As organisations grapple with the growth of BYON, the trend which allows employees to use their mobile phone's cellular connectivity to set up a personal hotspot or access corporate content on external networks, it is becoming increasingly important to invoke measures that prevent the possibility of employees using unrestricted networks to bypass the corporate network and access websites, apps and other services that are otherwise restricted.

All too often organisations fail to recognise the BYON threat and the longer they take to establish stringent rules and regulations for protection, the more exposed they become to a variety of threats. BYON definitely presents a risk, but as always, if it is managed carefully, it can be beneficial for businesses and should not be feared.

In some ways the issues that BYON present are similar to those of BYOD. There is the same concern that company policies can be ignored, data can be exposed or stolen and that compliance measures could be defeated. For example, an employee could upload confidential data to DropBox or Box.net on their personal device, while logging into their corporate network and sharing an unsecured public Wi-Fi hotspot with other, possibly risky devices.

Employees are now more IT literate and can expose back door routes into IT systems. The ultimate challenge is to ensure that sensitive corporate data remains secure and protected, while at the same time, providing employees with the tools that they need to be productive. By ensuring that there is at least a good Mobile App Management (MAM) or Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution in place to govern mobile devices, organisations can begin to control BYON. MDM will take care of basic security and controls, while MAM tools will unlock the full potential of the devices and increase employee productivity.

There are regulations that organisations must address to ensure that data is protected. The Data Protection Act, PCI DSS and the ISA's ISO270001 all govern how businesses should look after their data, who should be allowed to access it and what to do in the case of a breach. The penalties for data breaches are severe and not just financially; the potential of damage to a company's reputation cannot be ignored. Addressing these regulations doesn't mean that businesses need to protect each and every device and ban workers from accessing sensitive data. They just need to ensure that the data is protected at its source, and that access (who and what) is strictly controlled and audited.

Although MAM/MDM is not a complete solution to BYON issues, it can help to remove the impetus for employees to use their own networks, while also ensuring businesses comply with regulations. In ideal circumstances, IT can control the device as if it was one it had provisioned: allowing it to access all necessary applications and data while keeping the employees personal data completely separate. Workers would then be free to use the device exactly how they choose, while corporate data remains protected.

Ultimately, the key with tackling BYON is to protect what's important: corporate data. Control who can access it, what they can access, where they can access it from and what devices they can use. Get that perspective under control and BYOD and BYON become easier to manage. It can even be promoted as a great enabler for improved employee productivity, as opposed to being a cause for concern, in turn putting IT on the front foot.