Researchers from technology security company McAfee have found that while an increasing number of consumers use mobile devices for both business and personal activities, most of them are unfamiliar with their employer’s corporate policy on the use of mobile devices.
The report by McAfee, "Mobility and Security: Dazzling Opportunities, Profound Challenges", is focused on the consumerisation of IT and its impact on security. It approaches mobility from two perspectives — that of the company’s senior IT professional and that of the general end users of mobile devices in the workplace.
McAfee conducted the study in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University.
The report said that reliance on mobile devices is already significant and accelerating rapidly.
In the survey, almost half of organisations are very reliant on mobile devices with almost seven in 10 organisations saying that they are more reliant on mobile devices than they were 12 months ago.
The study also found that businesses now operate in a heterogeneous mobile environment and that 63% of devices on the network are also used for personal activities.
The greatest security concern for IT professionals and end-users are regarding lost and stolen mobile devices. Risky behaviours and weak security postures are commonplace, said the report.
The report also said that there is a serious disconnect between the policy and reality with 95% of organisations have policies in place in regard to mobile devices, however, only one in three employees are very aware of their company’s mobile security policies.
CyLab Distinguished Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and the primary author of the report Richard Power said devices are no longer just consumer devices or business devices, they are both.
Power said, "Devices are more than extensions of the computing structure, they are extensions of the user. The way users interact with their personal data mirrors the way they want to interact with corporate data."
