Half the Companies Supporting BYOD Report Data Breaches
August 30th, 2012 by BrightCloud
Nearly half of enterprises that allow employee-owned devices BYOD to connect to the company’s network have experienced a data breach, a study has revealed.
Most of these companies reacted by restricting data access rights (45%) or installing security software (43%), according to the survey of 400 IT professionals by Decisive Analytics. The firms followed these approaches despite the fact that prevention is a better option than fire-fighting after an incident has occurred.
Only 12% of companies surveyed shut down their bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programme altogether after experiencing a breach. This suggests that most firms recognise the benefits of BYOD can be preserved as long as proper security precautions are put into place. Companies that are questioning whether or not to allow workers to bring personal devices into the workplace should just stop asking; it’s clear that you can get a competitive edge when you put the right precautions in place.
Allowing BYOD gives companies a competitive advantage as it enhances innovation and creativity in the workplace. The key to not being overwhelmed by this trend is that all these devices need to be secured by implementing the proper BYOD policies and procedures.
“We firmly believe that doing nothing about BYOD is the riskiest strategy of all, because any perceived unreasonable restrictions will always be circumvented behind your back. Similarly being too relaxed about the use of devices can be equally damaging. Security by consensus, that engages the business and supports business goals, is the best approach. That inevitably means enabling BYOD in the most secure way possible.”
Duncan Little, BrightCloud Managing Director
With 78% of organisations running BYOD programmes, according to a survey by Forrester Consulting, 60% of these BYOD schemes included smartphones and 47% included tablets and laptops. Employee productivity was the main driver for such projects, the survey revealed, with 70% of respondents citing it as a key factor.
