The influx of tablets, smartphones and other devices on campus is a potential breeding ground for security breaches. IT staffs building a BYOD environment should take the following steps to ensure security.

Tip 1: Develop a policy.

Take the time to develop a written policy, both to get buy-in from all departments and colleges, and to have something specific on hand before the IT department finds it necessary to cut off access to devices that are insecure or not supported. The policy should include which devices are supported or not supported; whether waivers are necessary for unsupported devices; which software is required, such as antivirus or encryption products; what standards of behavior are expected, such as encrypting proprietary data; and to what extent unsupported devices will be supported.

Tip 2: Develop network zones for trusted and untrusted devices.

Most wireless access points will let IT managers set up two types of accounts: user accounts that can access internal networks and separate guest accounts that can access only the Internet...