A Symantec survey has confirmed that many organisations view the risks associated with the ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) initiatives, as being acceptable.
While most organisations allow employees to use personal mobile devices for business purposes, they also accept that doing so will likely result in a mobile security incident. And although the implementation of bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives is worth the risk, IT leaders need technology to enforce policies and protect their organisations from mobile security incidents.
These are the findings of a survey of 236 Symantec Vision conference attendees conducted by the security solutions specialist.
The majority of organisations reported at least one mobile security incident within the past 12 months, with the top mobility incidents businesses experienced in the past 12 months including lost or stolen devices (60 percent), spam (60 percent), malware infections (43 percent), phishing attacks (40 percent), and exposure of confidential information (19 percent).
The survey indicated organisations treat BYOD and corporate-controlled devices differently, with 83 percent of organisations still allowing employees to use personally owned devices for business use. However, 42 percent of employees use a personally owned mobile device for business regardless of their company policy.
While a majority (80 percent) of organisations enforce their policies, only 68 percent use technology to enforce it. Surprisingly, one in ten organisations (11 percent) use human resources (HR) controls to enforce these policies, which typically means they operate on the honour system or base their enforcement on the whistle blowing of other employees.
Sixty percent of organisations said that managing mobility is a challenge for them. As a result, 90 percent turn to mobility management technology to help them secure, provision, configure and otherwise protect their organisation’s data that resides on the mobile devices of their company and employees.
The top four applications that employees use for business purposes or to access business information from their personally owned mobile devices in the past 12 months were a Web browser (72 percent), email (58 percent), contacts (56 percent) and a calendar application (55 percent).
Ninety percent of US employees used their personal smartphones for work within the past year, yet only 46 percent believe their employers are prepared for any issues that could arise from BYOD, according to a March study in which a network of Cisco partners polled 1,000 consumers.
The survey revealed that 39 percent of employee’s personal devices are not password-protected, and found just over half (52 percent) reported accessing unsecured Wi-Fi networks with their devices, a well-known vulnerability in the cyber-security industry.
The results indicated security issues go deeper than password protection and Wi-Fi access. A large number of BYOD users don’t even consider that their phones’ Bluetooth discoverable modes may still be on, and 48 percent of work smartphone users haven’t disabled the feature on their devices. If a security issue were to arise, 86 percent of workers said their employers couldn’t remotely wipe their device’s data – that includes if the device is lost or stolen.
How much do you know about smartphones? Take our quiz!
Originally published on eWeek.
American space agency prepares for testing of Boeing's Starliner, to ensure it has two space…
As UK and Europe develop closer military ties, European Commission says it will invest €1.3…
Zuckerberg seeks to revive Facebook's original spirit, as Meta launches Facebook Friends tab, so users…
Notable development for Meta, after appeal against 2021 WhatsApp privacy fine is backed by advisor…
First sign of shake-up under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan? Three Intel board members confirm they…
Trump's nominee for SEC Chairman, Paul Atkins, has pledged a “rational, coherent, and principled approach”…
View Comments
Thanks to BYOD and other trends, the corporate IT landscape is no longer just about PCs. IT staff need to enable employees to access corporate systems and data from a variety of devices and platforms, without compromising security or productivity.
One approach to minimizing the security risks and support challenges of BYOD is to separate the data and applications from the personal devices. This can be achieved by using virtualization and cloud technologies to publish corporate Windows applications or virtual desktops and accessing them from a browser.
One solution that facilitates this approach is Ericom AccessNow. AccessNow is an HTML5 RDP client that enables any device (including iPads, iPhones and Android devices) with an HTML5-compatible browser to access Windows applications and virtual desktops.
There's nothing to install on the end user device. Users simply click on a URL and run their applications and desktops inside a browser tab. This improves security by keeping sensitive applications and data in the data center, while reducing support issues, as IT staff don't need to worry about device compatibility with corporate applications.
This white paper - "BYOD is Here to Stay, But Organizations Must Adapt" - discusses additional strategies for addressing some of the challenges of BYOD:
http://www.ericom.com/wp-byod.asp?URL_ID=708
Please note that I work for Ericom