Automotive Risk Management Partners ARMP

How Employee Personal Cell Phones Create Network Risk at Dealerships

Terry Dortch President, Automotive Risk Management Partners

Key takeaways

  • The average dealership has about 80 to 100 employees, each carrying a smartphone that connects to the dealership network.
  • Employee personal phones automatically connect to the dealership's internet when workers arrive, increasing the volume of uncontrolled devices on the network.
  • Salespeople often use personal cell phones for work communication such as calls and texts regardless of whether a policy prohibits it.
  • Unaddressed cell phone use on the network creates exposure that will eventually surface as a problem if not mitigated.
  • Addressing this exposure requires both employee education and mitigation measures, which a risk management consulting company can help design.

Summary

A dealership's network exposure grows with every employee who brings a personal smartphone to work. With an average store running somewhere around 80 to 100 employees, that means dozens of personal devices connecting to the dealership's internet and Wi-Fi every day, each one a potential entry point for problems that are hard to see coming until they surface.

Beyond just connecting to the network, staff also use those personal phones for work-related calls and texts, regardless of what written policy says. Terry Dortch argues that if a store isn't actively addressing this volume of uncontrolled devices and information flow through both education and mitigation steps, it will eventually create a real problem. He frames this as a core risk management issue and offers ARMP's consulting services to sit down with a dealership and work out practical solutions to reduce this exposure.

Transcript

Introduction to dealership exposure and employee count

Hi, my name is Terry Dortch. I'm with Automotive Risk Management Partners. You know, I want to talk to you today a little bit about exposure, I guess. Um, in a dealership, in the dealership world today, you know, the average store has probably somewhere in the vicinity of 80 employees, right? Bigger stores, obviously you're going to have more. You know, I mean, we can go, you know, we can break this down in a lot of different ways, but the average store is somewhere around 80 to 100 employees.

Personal phones connecting to the network

If you think about it, that's 80 to 100 people with cell phones. Everybody today has a smartphone. Everybody today, when they come into work, automatically their phones connect to the internet. If you are not doing something, and this goes to education as well as mitigation, if you're not doing something to address the volume of people that are on your network, then you're doing... it's a problem, you're going to have a problem. It is going to come up, it's going to surface. There's too many people on it, there's too much information that you can't control going back and forth across those personal phones.

Salespeople using phones for work despite policy

And even, let's take it a step further, some of those people use those phones in their daily work life. I'll guarantee you your salespeople are using their cell phones to talk to people, text, everything, whether you want it or whether it's a policy that says they're not supposed to, whatever your policies and procedures are, they're still doing it. There's things that need to be addressed, and if you're not doing that, you need to address them.

How ARMP can help mitigate the exposure

Again, these are things that, as a true consulting company, we can help you with. Please take, take the time, give us a call. We'll be more than happy to come in and sit down with you and help to come up with solutions to mitigate those exposures. That's what we do. We're a risk management company. Give us a call, information's on the screen.

Questions this video answers

How many employee cell phones are typically connecting to our dealership network?

The average dealership has somewhere around 80 to 100 employees, which means roughly that many personal smartphones connecting to the network, with larger stores having even more.

Are our salespeople using personal cell phones for work even if we have a policy against it?

Yes, salespeople commonly use their personal cell phones to talk and text with customers regardless of whether a dealership policy says they are not supposed to, so this needs to be addressed.

Why is employee cell phone use considered a cybersecurity exposure for dealerships?

With 80 to 100 people connecting personal phones to the network and exchanging information that can't be controlled, the volume of devices and data moving across personal phones creates a problem that will eventually surface if not addressed through education and mitigation.

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Covered in this video

  • Employee cell phone use
  • Network security
  • Cyber exposure mitigation
  • Dealership risk management consulting