A CISO’s perspective on a TikTok ban and what it means for enterprises 

The federal authorities is contemplating pushing an outright ban on the video-sharing app TikTok throughout the U.S., simply weeks after banning the app from all U.S. authorities gadgets. Citing knowledge privateness issues stemming from TikTok’s mum or dad firm, the Chinese language agency ByteDance, officers have made it clear that they consider the app may very well be used to spy on Individuals’ private data and ship that knowledge on to the Chinese language authorities, which is thought for cyber-theft of IR, commerce secrets and techniques and different proprietary data from Western firms to advance its personal nationwide safety priorities.

Contemplating what to do about TikTok

However for companies that use TikTok for advertising or make use of any of the 150 million Individuals who’ve the app, what’s to be completed? The reply, for now, lies in following fundamental safety hygiene practices for all data-collecting apps, not simply TikTok. 

The truth is that it doesn’t matter what TikTok’s affiliation with the Chinese language authorities is, it’s not the one app that’s able to actively farming person knowledge. Snapchat, Google and Meta all make the most of person knowledge to extra granularly goal advertisements and perceive person habits.

No firm is proof against cyber-breaches and knowledge theft, a lot of that extremely private knowledge may be doubtlessly uncovered by an adversary. TikTok does knowledge assortment on a big scale due to the dimensions of its person base and present recognition, however typically, for those who’re not paying for the app or service, it’s utilizing your knowledge to earn cash.

In fact, the explanation we — and Congress — are having this dialogue proper now’s that, not like any of these social media firms, TikTok is owned by a international firm affiliated with China. Though we must be cautious when utilizing social media platforms, regardless of who owns them, TikTok is gathering huge quantities of data from American shoppers, and we don’t know what that knowledge is getting used for or if a international authorities has entry to the info.

Is BYOD best for you?

For this reason enterprises that permit staff to bring their own devices into the workplace or conduct work on them — “BYOD” — ought to instantly reevaluate their insurance policies. Extra particularly, they need to make it possible for they’re conscious of the forms of firm data staff have on their private gadgets, and take the mandatory measures to make sure that data is separated from the remainder of the apps on these gadgets. 

There are controls that organizations can implement to make sure that delicate firm data isn’t being collected by any kind of app, TikTok or not. However typically, employers can not challenge an outright ban on staff downloading no matter app they’d like onto a private system. Organizations can have acceptable use insurance policies (AUPs) that administratively require staff to not use social media, together with TikTok, whereas on firm time, however that isn’t a ban on having the app on the system. It additionally doesn’t forestall the app from gathering data, which it does on a regular basis.

Technical options that may be put in on private gadgets to stop delicate work data from being collected by apps, or, for instance, downloading delicate paperwork from electronic mail, must be arrange, maintained and monitored. That may be costly and time-consuming, and it requires a corporation to have good knowledge dealing with practices in place already, together with classifying data and property and having visibility into how that data is processed and used on staff’ private gadgets. Enterprise safety leaders ought to perceive precisely what data they should shield to make higher danger selections about how that data is dealt with.

What about work telephones?

The choice route for enterprise involved about TikTok’s knowledge assortment practices is to challenge its personal gadgets to staff, pre-loaded with safety controls that forestall unknown or unauthorized purposes from being downloaded. If the group owns the system, they will management precisely what’s allowed to be completed and downloaded onto the system to make sure correct safety protocols are being adopted.

However issuing firm gadgets may also be costly, and enterprises contemplating the choice to buy laptops or telephones for workers must take into consideration comfort, enterprise imperatives and knowledge security danger. 

The precise dangers highlighted by the TikTok challenge will not be new however have reached a brand new degree of visibility because of the app’s unimaginable recognition. Whereas Congress deliberates on banning the app, enterprise safety leaders know that the difficult challenge of knowledge privateness and worker property doesn’t finish with TikTok, and discovering new options will likely be crucial as different data-collecting apps rise in utilization. There’s by no means been a greater time for these leaders to convey safety to the entrance and heart of their organizations’ priorities.

Adam Marrè is Chief Data Safety Officer at Arctic Wolf.