The bad news for companies is that employees are increasingly taking part in risky mobile behaviour, with nearly 90% accessing confidential information on mobile devices, despite less than a quarter of them receiving mobile security training, said Derick Roberts, CEO of wireless specialist, TruTeq Devices.
“The use of mobile devices at home and at the office is increasing exponentially. People are more inclined to pick up a mobile phone to communicate than making use of a computer – and this is true in the office environment as well. But it is presenting very real problems on the security front.”
According to new research from the Ponemon Institute and Accellion, a provider of enterprise mobile solutions, 88% of respondents are accessing confidential information on mobile devices.
The recently competed study, The Security Impact of Mobile Device Use by Employees, found that this is the new workplace reality. The bottom line is that enterprises desperately need to implement solutions that will enable mobile workflows for employees, without introducing new information security risks.
On a scary note, only 20% of survey respondents reported that they have received security training for mobile content access and management in the workplace. Additionally, of those 74% say it was not effective in reducing the security risks created by the use of mobile devices.
Other worrying feedback includes:
* Sixty-six percent of respondents say they have downloaded and used mobile apps that do not have the approval of their company;
* Only 19% of respondents say they made sure the apps they downloaded did not contain viruses or malware; and
* Only 22% of respondents say they think such behaviour puts their company at risk.
“The results from this recent Ponemon study show that employees are generally unaware of the security risks of accessing and sharing corporate information on mobile devices,” says Paula Skokowski, CMO of Accellion. “Employees looking to use mobile devices to be more productive, continue to download and use potentially harmful apps and do not understand the security implications of these actions.”
