More and more workers today are bringing their personal devices such as laptops, mobile phones and tablets to the office to use for work. While this practice leads to greater productivity, it can pose a security risk.
Trustlook Mobile Security surveyed 320 users to understand current BYOD trends and practices within organisations.
Even though 70 percent of employees use a personal device for work, only 39 percent of companies have a formal BYOD policy.
“There aren't any instructions in place on BYOD here at my company. I use my device for work without any restrictions. The employer is cool with it,” said one employee respondent.
More than 50 percent of respondents have never received instructions or training for using a personal device at work.
Nearly half of employees are concerned with exposing private company information while using a personal device at work, also posing a security risk.
“I have a concern over BYOD and the device being managed by my company. I worry my personal information is being accessed by the admin,” said another respondent.
Only 14 percent of companies have a preferred mobile security app for their employees to install. The remaining 86 percent are either not concerned with mobile security or leave it to the employee to install the necessary protection on their device.
Eighty percent of companies don't provide their employees with a mobile device to use at work, leading to the inevitability that the employees will use their personal device for work tasks.
Trustlook discovered nearly 7000 malware samples in September 2016 alone. China, India, Indonesia, the US and the Philippines came out as the countries that had the most instances of malware.
“BYOD can be great for productivity, but companies need to be more diligent about education, policy enforcement and security. We are seeing thousands of new malware threats each month that are capable of stealing confidential company information,” said Allan Zhang, CEO at Trustlook.
