Help Needed Desperately For Device Management Says Research

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A Check Point commissioned report shows companies struggling with mobile device issues

A study of mobile security issues has found that most firms are struggling with mobile device management and security. There is a massive opportunity for security VARs to engage with new customers and upsell existing ones concludes the report, commissioned by Check Point Software Technologies and carried out by Dimensional Research.

Researchers quizzed 790 IT professionals from around the globe, including 114 in the UK for the report on The Impact of Mobile Devices on Information Security.

Embarrassing BYODs

Of the UK segment, 72 percent said they’d had mobile security incidents in the past year. Half (51%) said the number of personal mobile devices connecting to corporate networks had increased more than five fold in the last two years.

Most companies (63%) don’t even attempt to manage corporate information on employee-owned devices and only 23 percent use mobile management tools or put a secure container on the device. By contrast, the vast majority (88%) of mobile workers use devices for corporate email, and 53 percent keep customer data stored on their unsecured devices.

Users appeared to recognise there is a problem as two-thirds of respondents said they felt careless employees posed a greater risk than cyber-criminals. Users cited Android as the platform with greatest perceived security risk.

A large majority (79%) of businesses had a mobile security incident in the past year, with 42percent losing $100,000 (£64,000) in the incident. A significant portion (16%) putting the cost at more than $500,000 (£320,000).

“The explosion of BYOD, mobile apps, and cloud services, has created a Herculean task to protect corporate information,” said Tomer Teller, security evangelist and researcher at Check Point.  “An effective mobile security strategy will focus on protecting corporate information but it’s equally important to educate employees about best practices.”

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