Remote and hybrid work normalized employees checking email, accessing files, or joining calls from personal phones, tablets, and home computers — often with no security oversight from the business at all. This "shadow IT" surface is one of the most common and least monitored risk areas for SMBs today.

Why it matters. A personal device with no endpoint protection, an outdated operating system, or a shared family login represents an entry point into company data that IT has no visibility into and no ability to secure directly.

The common blind spot. Businesses often have solid security controls on company-issued laptops, then have no policy at all — formal or informal — governing whether email or company data can be accessed from personal devices, and no way to enforce basic protections (like screen lock or remote wipe) if one of those devices is lost or compromised.

Recommended actions:

• Establish a clear Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy defining what personal devices can and cannot access
• Where personal device access to company email or data is allowed, require baseline protections: a passcode or biometric lock, and the ability to remotely wipe company data if the device is lost
• Consider conditional access policies that block or limit access from unmanaged devices, particularly for sensitive systems
• Extend security awareness training to explicitly cover personal-device use, not just company hardware