"Designing a BYOD program that prevents the device owner from doing what they want with their phone or other gadget defeats the purpose of the process," Kendrick wrote. "It doesn't benefit either the company or the worker if the gadget can't be used normally. The ability to use the gear as desired for both personal and business functions is critical to get workers to enthusiastically buy into the program."

Companies need to protect their data, but information has become one of the primary tools of the modern worker. It's easy to imagine the hiccups that could happen with day-to-day operations if a customer service representative couldn't easily access consumer data. According to Kendrick, being able to segregate company data and personal information on the same device is critical to the success of BYOD. However, companies should also be prepared for a data security breach - and this is especially critical for organizations like healthcare facilities that deal with a high volume of sensitive information.

HHS issues data security guidance
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a draft of a new rule earlier this year that encouraged the use of data encryption software in the healthcare industry. Although HHS did not require that all data be encrypted, the department emphasized the importance of hospitals assessing the need and viability of encryption for any stored patient information.

"In the proposed rule, we explained that this measure is the same as in Stage 1 except that we specifically address the encryption/security of data is that is stored in CEHRT (data at rest)," the report stated. "Due to the number of breaches reported to HHS involving lost or stolen devices, the HIT Policy Committee recommended specifically highlighting the importance of an entity's reviewing its encryption practices as part of its risk analysis."

According to HHS, 40 percent of large data breaches involved lost or stolen devices, and the risk posed by these incidents could have been avoided if the information were encrypted.