When the line between business and personal gets blurred, it can lead to problems, security risks, and loss of important business data. Therefore, it is important to have a business account set up for users that uses specific work credentials that the company maintains control over.
Here are some of the pitfalls.
If an employee leaves, their account goes with them.
There can be several types of files and data that need to be retained after an employee leaves your company. This could include syncing backup files, browser-stored company passwords, etc.
If you’ve allowed an employee to use a personal account on their business computer, you could end up losing all that valuable data when they log out and leave the company for good. If the person is using a business account, you retain control of that account and to the workstation that’s attached to it.
Personal files can sync and mix with business files.
With both personal devices and a work device syncing on the same user account, you end up with an unsecured mix of personal and business files.
This is bad for both the company and the user because each can have sensitive information end up in places they never intended.
For example, you don’t want a child of an employee that is using their parent’s personal device to be able to access and accidentally delete business documents. Just as an employee doesn’t want their vacation photos to end up being backed up to a shared company folder that the whole company can access.
Ultimately, there are many, many reasons why one would not want to co-mingle work and personal accounts on a variety of devices. At Geek Girls IT, we take security very seriously, especially as these types of incidents are on the rise despite being completely avoidable with basic security practices.
I hope this will help shed some light on our position regarding this initiative.