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Cellular News: Workplace Mobile Policies A Must? Up To A Point

A salesman's BlackBerry buzzes.

The caller could be the lead he's been courting — or his son checking in. As smart phones infiltrate the workplace, they are bringing along a dilemma: Should firms govern how employees use mobile phones?

Companies have good reasons to come up with cell phone policies, says Carl Weinschenk, who writes the IT Business Edge blog.

Among other things, he cites security issues.

If users download company data to smart phones and the info is lost or stolen, that's trouble.

Then there are legal issues.

Regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley mandate that certain data be secure and backed up.

If an employee's smart phone isn't secure enough, or if it holds data that isn't backed up, a company is at risk.

Yet policies should only go so far, Weinschenk says.

So how do companies balance legal and security risks against the blurring of personal-professional boundaries on cell phones?

Ken Dulaney, an analyst with research firm Gartner, suggests that companies give the responsibility to the users.

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