BYOD Movement: What’s the Security Cost?

BYOD Movement: What’s the Security Cost?

by Nathan Eddy

Android, Apple Trusted Less Than Windows, BlackBerry

Windows Mobile and BlackBerry both saw the number of IT professionals who viewed the respective platforms as the most risky ones decrease by almost half.

Larger Businesses More Likely to Manage Data

Just 17 percent of companies with fewer than 1,000 employees use a technical approach to information management on employee’s mobile devices, far less than the 66 percent of companies with more than 5,000 employees.

Personal Devices at Work Become More Commonplace

The vast majority of respondents that do allow personally owned mobile devices to connect to corporate networks have seen an increase in the use of such devices connecting to corporate networks.

Mobile Security Incidents are Expensive

Once companies have mobile devices, security incidents happen and the costs are substantial. For companies with more than 5,000 employees, about half reported the cost of mobile security incidents exceeded $500,000 last year.

Businesses of All Sizes are Deploying BYOD

Little variation was seen in the number of businesses saying they have personal mobile devices on their corporate networks from the smallest businesses (68 percent) to the largest (65 percent).

Careless Employees and Cyber-criminals

The survey revealed that businesses fear careless employees pose greater security risks (66 percent) than cyber-criminals (34 percent) do, suggesting a need for a strong combination of technology and security awareness throughout an organization.

Fears of Data Loss Are Top Concern

When IT professionals were presented with a list of possible issues that could occur as a result of a mobile security incident, they were by far most concerned about the possible loss of corporate information (94 percent). The cost of replacing the lost device ranked a distant second (20 percent).

Corporate Email, Customer Data Stored on Devices

Participants reported an increase in all types of information stored on mobile devices compared with last year. Corporate email, the most common type of corporate information reported, increased from 79 percent of mobile devices last year to 88 percent this year.

A Dearth of Mobile Management Persists

Almost two-thirds of companies that have personally owned mobile devices connecting to their corporate networks do not manage the corporate information that resides there.

Corporate Networks Including More Personal Devices

Sixty-seven percent of respondents have devices owned personally by employees, contractors or others that are connected to their corporate networks, including 65 percent that allow both personal and company-owned mobile devices and 2 percent that have just personally owned mobile devices on their networks.