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Cont: Dear Users… (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people) Part 11

It surprises me that IT departments would think allowing personal phones to connect to their internal systems was a good idea.

Starts at the top - the MD doesn't want to be juggling two phones. IT departments may well think it's a bad idea but it's the norm now.
 
Are you sure for giving away, selling the phone, leaving the company? If so then the phones are not set up correctly. That should only require the work profile to be deleted, which will delete all the work apps and all the data from company accounts such as company emails etc.
Nope. They do a FULL phone factory reset - back to out-of-the-box status. It's literally part of the deal to allow any phone to be used for our hospital purposes. They are serious about data security in our children's hospital. Imagine what some pervert could do with medical photos if a child is identifiable.

You can use your own handset, sure, and have your personal contact details in the hospital phone directory, etc. But it also gets entered in the corporate handset management system and subject to corporate rules: Where a managed handset is deemed to be leaving patient data at risk, it can be factory reset remotely.

I would be very surprised to hear people leaving the company allow all their personal data to be deleted.
It's quite true. That's why I asked for a separate corporate phone for work purposes, one they can wipe at any time. My own phone is not used for work at all, another part of the corporate rules.
 
Is a factory reset as big a deal as it used to be with the availability of cloud backup and storage? Granted, it probably depends upon the provider, but I recall the last time I upgraded my phone that getting the new phone set up with most of what I had on my old phone was fairly painless. Wouldn't most smartphones if reset just download the last backup almost as soon as it restarted?

Yes, I would be upset if someone factory reset my phone remotely, but I don't think it would take me long to get back all my personal information and settings.
 
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Is a factory reset as big a deal as it used to be with the availability of cloud backup and storage?

I talked about this is another thread a while back.

I decided to make a backup plan for my home PC/Devices and quickly realized I didn't have that much to backup.

I can reinstall Windows/Android/Linux and/or hard reset all my devices in my sleep at this point and almost all my data; Steam Games, Music, Kindle Books is already on the cloud with no functional way of me doing a "backup" on any of it outside of it's already cloud based nature.

A small Google Drive for my personal documents and some PC settings is all I really need for "backup" these days.
 
I talked about this is another thread a while back.

I decided to make a backup plan for my home PC/Devices and quickly realized I didn't have that much to backup.

I can reinstall Windows/Android/Linux and/or hard reset all my devices in my sleep at this point and almost all my data; Steam Games, Music, Kindle Books is already on the cloud with no functional way of me doing a "backup" on any of it outside of it's already cloud based nature.

A small Google Drive for my personal documents and some PC settings is all I really need for "backup" these days.

Yeah, I had the same experience with a new PC I bought about six months ago.
"My Computer" basically just lives on OneDrive and it almost doesn't matter what PC I attach to it.
 
Ya, I have OneDrive for my Office 365 documents, Google Drive for some of my other projects. I also use a separate SSD as an application drive.
 
Yeah, I had the same experience with a new PC I bought about six months ago.
"My Computer" basically just lives on OneDrive and it almost doesn't matter what PC I attach to it.
A data security situation pointed out to our IT policy wonks in HQ...and they sat there like stunned mullets. They just realised that sensitive patient data could conceivably and easily be uploaded to public cloud storage from company phones, perhaps more easily than using totally unsecure USB sticks (which they wrote silly policy for and everyone ignores). It's a cavalcade of clowns sometimes...
 
Yeah. I don't want a work phone and more importantly I don't need one. It seems stupid to give me one just so that it can run Cisco DUO. I would literally have no other use for it.

It's easy to install the app on a personal phone, costs nothing, takes no resources, and almost everybody already has one. Who would ever consider doing otherwise?

I have a work phone, it's in my desk. Or was. I have no idea where my desk is.

I had already given up using the work brick and asked them to call my own mobile. Since covid we've had to use Duo, which wouldn't have run on the brick any way. Not entered into any arguments about compensation
 
It surprises me that IT departments would think allowing personal phones to connect to their internal systems was a good idea.
Sensible ones don't. But that may be over-ridden by idiot managers and bean counters.
 
Sensible ones don't. But that may be over-ridden by idiot managers and bean counters.

Normally not the managers.

Back in the day a certain financial institution with which I am familiar had a strictly managed company owned Blackberry rule. Until senior execs started using iPhones.

Yep it's the senior bods that usually sets the ball rolling.
 
catsmate said:
It surprises me that IT departments would think allowing personal phones to connect to their internal systems was a good idea.
Sensible ones don't. But that may be over-ridden by idiot managers and bean counters.
Or senior surgeons in major hospitals... Strangely, these people have considerable influence in hospital Board meetings. ;) What they want, they usually get. And ours wanted to use their (latest-model, titanium-isotope frame, nuclear-powered) personal iPhones on our corporate network. This, after demanding to be able use USB's to take patient data to their consulting rooms...and losing them.

They have been a nightmare for patient data security sometimes...
 
Or senior surgeons in major hospitals... Strangely, these people have considerable influence in hospital Board meetings. ;) What they want, they usually get. And ours wanted to use their (latest-model, titanium-isotope frame, nuclear-powered) personal iPhones on our corporate network. This, after demanding to be able use USB's to take patient data to their consulting rooms...and losing them.

They have been a nightmare for patient data security sometimes...
I favour drawing up a quitable worded legal disclaimer, dumping all responsibility and costs on them, and requiring it to be signed and witnessed.
 

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