The rise of BYOD: how to secure personal devices | Obsidian Security
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The rise of BYOD: how to secure personal devices

🔑 Key Takeaways

  • BYOD policies enhance flexibility but introduce significant security risks.
  • A compromised personal device can serve as a gateway for attackers to infiltrate corporate SaaS environments.
  • Continuous monitoring is essential to detect and stop threats before they escalate.

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies allow employees to use their personal devices—like smartphones, laptops, and tablets—for work-related tasks. With hybrid and remote work on the rise, BYOD can improve productivity and streamline day-to-day activities. However, from a security perspective, it also opens up new entry points for attackers.

In this blog post, we’ll break down a real-world incident where an employee’s personal device was compromised, how we helped detect and block the threat, and tips for secure BYOD use.

What happened?

This particular organization had a BYOD policy in place that allowed employees to access corporate SaaS apps, like Office 365, from their personal devices. While this flexible setup had its perks, it also expanded the attack surface. One employee’s device was compromised by malware, which attackers used to access the company’s Office 365 environment.

Without comprehensive visibility and context into the suspicious activity,  this threat could have resulted in a significant data breach.  

How was the threat detected?

With Obsidian, the security team quickly connected the dots between suspicious activities, gaining full context and visibility through our platform. Here’s how the threat unfolded:

  • Login from an Unusual Location: A login attempt from an unexpected location triggered an immediate alert.
  • Impossible Travel: Multiple logins from geographically distant locations within a short timeframe suggested possible credential theft.
  • Anomalous Infrastructure Change: Traffic from a residential proxy provider trying to connect to Office 365 raised red flags about the use of a proxy to mask the attacker’s location.

These early indicators gave the security team the information they needed to act quickly.

How was it contained?

Thanks to Obsidian’s high-fidelity alerts, the security team contained the threat quickly. Their actions included:

  • Isolating the compromised device to prevent further malicious activity.
  • Resetting the compromised credentials for Office 365 to lock the attacker out.
  • Blocking suspicious IP addresses to prevent future intrusion attempts.
  • Reverting configuration changes in the SaaS environment to restore it to a secure state.

These immediate actions minimized the attack’s impact and stopped it from spreading. A huge win. 

Building secure BYOD practices:

  1. Don’t Just Focus on Authentication: While securing logins is critical, monitoring activity after authentication is just as important. Attackers can still be detected if unusual behavior is spotted early.
  2. Implement Continuous Monitoring: Obsidian’s end-to-end security platform analyzes user behavior across multiple layers of your SaaS environment. This approach helps detect and stop threats, even after initial access is gained, especially as attacks become more advanced.
  3. BYOD Requires Constant Vigilance: Continuous monitoring is essential when employees use personal devices for work. Without the right tools, it can be time-consuming for security teams to track and respond to malicious activity.

With Obsidian’s platform tracking behavior across your SaaS environment, your security teams can quickly detect and block threats, while employees use their personal devices without compromising security. Want more guidance or keen to learn more about our solutions? Reach out to us any time to ask questions or schedule a demo.