How much does your workforce know about mobile security? Adopting a “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy can introduce the benefits of convenience and cost savings, but without proper planning, it also can put an organization at risk for mobile malware.

Employees who bring their own smartphones and tablets to work have different ideas about what type of corporate data should be available on their personal devices, and how the company ought to secure those devices. No two companies are alike, so there isn't a template for creating a mobile policy. But there are several components of any successful mobile program — and it starts by treating employees like customers, argues Mani Zarrehparvar, president of Visage Mobile.

It's every IT pro's job to stay on top of the latest technology trends that could help turn a profit or increase employee productivity. Virtualization is so commonplace — Gartner, for example, estimates that Windows servers are nearly 70 percent virtualized — that IT pros might not give it much thought. And that can create problems since virtual data must be protected, starting with the driving force behind virtualization: the hypervisor.

Backing up your data one day a year just won't cut it. Too many things can go wrong — and fast — and once unprotected data is gone, it's likely gone forever. Solutions such as image backup and deduplication are just two ways that IT pros and average Joes can quickly and efficiently ensure their data is backed up and accessible when they need it. Here are a few data recovery and disaster planning tips and tricks from around the web this week: