Creston’s municipal information could soon be kept off employees’ personal cellphones.
Council endorsed a standardized corporate-owned mobile device program Tuesday, citing concerns around privacy, cybersecurity and records management.
The decision follows a review that flagged risks with the current system.
Around 2013-14, the Town began allowing some employees to use personal phones for work in exchange for a monthly allowance.
Over time, that created a hybrid system of Town-issued and employee-owned devices. CAO Michael Moore said the arrangement was never formally assessed for the risks associated with storing municipal information on personal phones.
“The lowest risk to the organization is to have corporately managed phones,” Moore told councillors.
The review found personal devices can create challenges when municipal records need to be retrieved for Freedom of Information requests, workplace investigations, legal proceedings or audits.
It also raised concerns about what happens to municipal information when an employee leaves the organization.
“The bigger risk to us is when that person is no longer with our organization, and that’s when we need to really control that data,” Moore said.
Corporate-owned devices can be remotely managed, secured and wiped, while personal devices make it more difficult to ensure municipal information is preserved or removed when employment ends.
Moore clarified the new system would not mean every employee gets a Town phone.
“I don’t personally believe that every one of our staff members need, need a corporate phone,” he said. “So each manager in each department will have to review their staff and determine which staff requires a corporate phone and why.”
The change would also impact councillors, who currently use Town-provided iPads for municipal business. Moore said personal devices would no longer be able to access corporate information under the proposed framework.
“What would change is that there would be no more accessing your corporate email on any personal devices,” explained Moore. “They’ll get locked down and so all your council business would be on the iPads.”
Whether council members will also receive Town-owned phones remains to be decided as the policy is developed and the budget implications are reviewed.
“As we develop the policy and put together some of the pricing for council to consider is that we could consider iPads and phones for all the council. And the council can make that decision based upon the budgetary impact,” Moore said.
It remains unclear how much the proposed change would cost. Moore said the Town expects some upfront costs for buying devices and program implementation. A detailed budget will come back to council at a later date.
Council directed staff to prepare the necessary policy amendments, implementation procedures and budget requirements for further consideration.
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