Companies and employees are generally unhappy with their purchased bring-your-own-device (BYOD) security solutions, according to a survey of 895 IT and IT security specialists by the Ponemon Institute and email data security specialist Zix Corp.
More than 60 percent of respondents say their companies support BYOD, however, 46 percent of those companies do not use tools or policies to protect corporate data, the report revealed.
Sixty percent of respondents said they are unsatisfied with current BYOD solutions mostly due to cost and inadequate security, 60 percent of respondents say employees are concerned about privacy and personal data retention, and 56 percent of respondents say their companies are looking to replace their current BYOD security solution.
Respondents said that on average 55 percent of employees only need access to corporate email, calendar and contacts, and 37 percent of respondents say their companies use mobile device password policies only.
“The speed at which BYOD took hold of the business community is unlike any technology trend we’ve seen before. Companies are swiftly adopting BYOD to enable work productivity and create efficiencies but are hitting significant road bumps in cost, security and employee concerns,” Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, said in a statement. “The evolution of BYOD solutions to overcome these challenges is necessary for full adoption across companies and among the entire employee base.”
More than 40 percent of respondents say their companies have limited BYOD deployment due to employee resistance to loading security tools on personal devices (35 percent) and inadequate security tools (28 percent).
“As excited as the market is to take advantage of BYOD, it’s clear that there’s a hunger for better solutions,” Rick Spurr, ZixCorp chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “Understanding the current state of BYOD and companies’ goals and concerns will enable the market to develop innovative answers that advance BYOD to its full potential. Securely streaming corporate data to mobile devices instead of controlling the devices themselves is one approach that meets both company needs and employee demands.”
According to an August survey from Teksystems, among the organizations that have some form of BYOD policy in place, approximately only half of IT leaders (48 percent) and just one-third of IT professionals (35 percent) said they believe the policy is crystal clear. In addition, approximately one-third (35 percent) of IT leaders and a quarter of IT professionals are not confident their organizations are compliant with government mandates.