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When it comes to government, many agencies and operations feel there can never be enough safety. That’s why the BYOD choices of government agencies have been such an important concern, and now, the United States government is about to roll out a new option.

Biometric authentication has entered the mainstream with the latest iPhone, but many analysts think this is only the start of a bigger revolution. With the thumb now conquered, the next step in authentication and safer BYOD use could lie with even harder to replicate unique parts of one’s makeup.

Operations today are now working in the age of BYOD, and as such, they have important decisions to make – where on the continuum between completely free use and largely restrictively rules should they place their policies? There’s no doubt, it’s necessary to give users a good deal of freedom – but the potential dangers in an overly customized phone show that companies must have standards in place, too.

BYOD has made businesses more productive and life easier, but it has also created difficulties for many companies – especially for those who are charged with keeping information secure. One new study has found the latest attitudes on the “battle” between IT and everyday employees to combat shadow IT, and it seems that those intent on implementing their own rules are doing so. 

In a recent Government Technology post, Chad Vandeer Veen argues that organizations are too lazy to do what’s right when it comes to passwords, and are stuck in a false naiveté that their foot loose policies will protect them from hacks. I think he’s mostly right, but there’s a fair share of blame on the end users too.

The latest survey from McAfee concentrated on mobile security practices among small and medium businesses that operate with BYOD, and the results are no different from surveys of the business community at large – too many companies are still not operating with proper mobile risk management.