But what does this even mean anyway? Well, businesses use tech to grow, makes sense, nowadays, you have no choice, you absolutely need to anyway. But a lot of businesses lack being thorough, well, more specifically here, they device hygience. Alright, so device hygiene sounds like one of those phrases that shouldn’t exist, because it makes it sound like laptops need deodorant. But yeah, it’s a real thing, and it’s also one of those small business problems that hides in plain sight.
And, well, it’s not because anyone’s careless or trying to be reckless, but because day-to-day work gets busy, people take shortcuts to keep things moving, and devices end up being treated like communal property instead of, you know, tiny vaults full of business access. But yeah, that’s what they are, though.
But yeah, that’s actually the whole thing here, because most “cybersecurity problems” in small businesses don’t start with a movie-style hacker scene. Sure, that’s hilarious and all, but it’s simple, it’s basic, and well, yeah, it’s far from Hollywood. But it’s up to you and your team to take device hygiene seriously because this actually does cause a lot of cybersecurity issues that could have just been prevented entirely here!
Why Does Device Hygiene Get So Messy?
Okay, so device hygiene issues usually show up when the business is running on practical survival mode. And what exactly does this even mean? Well, a staff member needs to jump on the front desk computer, someone’s using the same tablet for appointments, the boss is responding to messages on a personal phone, and the “extra laptop” has become the house device that everyone touches. Do you use your work computer at home? Do you use it to play video games and chat with people on Discord? Well, that’s a problem. And while sure, it’s not malicious, it’s just convenient, it’s still a problem, because now, there are a lot of security holes being poked.
While not all businesses can afford to have a dedicated IT person or even have IT cybersecurity services, it can be great to have if you can afford it. What’s worse, spending money on IT, or having premiums on insurance go up, fines to be paid, and a bad reputation due to carelessness? Yeah, exactly. You need real structure, you need awareness, you need to protect, so you absolutely need to have device hygiene in place, and even better if you can get an IT department or personnel.
What’s the Signs a Business has a Device Hygiene Problem?
Well, a lot of businesses can spot this instantly if they’re being honest for five seconds. So, it helps if you and your team are just honest. Now, some examples were mentioned earlier; did any of those hit a little too close to home? Well, here are some other ones to look into as well. So, one big sign is shared devices with shared logins. One laptop everyone uses “sometimes,” one tablet that floats around, one front desk computer where everyone signs into everything, things like that.
Plus, all these shared devices are set up with browser autofill turned on, passwords saved in Chrome, and tabs staying open all day. It’s convenient, yeah, sure, but it also means one unlocked screen can lead straight into, well, everything. Screens being left unblocked is bad, for example, you have a reception area, a front desk, and you or someone else goes into the back room while a customer is at said desk, well, if they wanted, they could now easily access the computer, or even just glance at the screen, which still isn’t good.
And last, retired devices that are still logged in, have not been cleaned out, have not been factory reset, have not been recycled, they can just easily turn on and get the same access as everything else.
Are Personal Phones Being Used for Work?
So this one was already mentioned once, but it actually helps to just go ahead and mention this one again because this, for whatever reason, is getting so normalized. But what’s even the big deal here? Well, texting customers from a personal phone seems harmless. It’s fast, it’s easy, customers respond, and it feels more human. But the issue is that the messages, photos, addresses, gate codes, appointment details, and payment conversations start living on one person’s device. Well, the issue is everything that’s on that device, your personal info, and the business/work-related info; that’s the problem here.
Then what happens when that person leaves, changes numbers, breaks their phone, gets hacked, the phone gets stolen, or just decides they don’t want customer messages at 10 p.m. anymore? Well, there’s a big problem because the business loses the record, loses continuity, and sometimes loses customer trust because nobody can pick up the conversation properly. Now, but with all of that said here, it’s not about banning texting. Honestly, it’s not even about the texting aspect; it’s the “all the info is on here” aspect. It’s better ot be safe than sorry and just having a designated business phone instead.
Then there’s Passwords and Browser Sessions
While this one has been briefly mentioned already, it’s time for it to get its own special section here because this one is actually the most common of them all. But at the same time, though, this is the one that catches people off guard because it feels so normal. As you probably know by now, browsers remember everything. They remember passwords, sessions, autofill, payment details, and those “stay signed in” prompts that everybody clicks without thinking. And so on a personal device, that’s already risky, but on a shared business device, it’s basically a free pass.
But you have to understand here that a shared computer with saved logins isn’t just a shared computer, it’s sa hared identity. It means anyone who sits down can send emails as the business, reset passwords, access customer messages, view invoices, download files, or change account settings. Even if nobody does anything malicious, accidents happen. That’s the worst part, something bad can still just happen here.
Maybe someone clicks “update payment method,” someone changes the scheduling settings, someone deletes a template, and now nobody knows who did it because the device never had clean user separation in the first place. And it gets worse when people reuse passwords across tools. That’s when one compromised login becomes several compromised logins, and now the business is spending a weekend resetting accounts instead of doing literally anything else.
