Last updated: 21 March 2014
Our recent CIO research has suggested that remote access is a security sore-point for many businesses. We picked up on this trend and charted the overall security attitudes of USA, UK, French, German and Nordic workers in the whitepaper we released exposing what keeps a CIO awake at night. Last week, John E Dunn of Computerworld UK published an article specifically about BYOD attitudes between countries, and so I felt it was time for you to ‘bring your own debate’ to the table.
In John’s article he notes that “Germans workers appear significantly more likely to follow the security policies demanded by employers for remote working than their French or British equivalents”, so what’s stopping the French, British and indeed, the rest of the world from following suit?
BYOD policies have been headline news in worldwide media coverage after high profile security breaches at LinkedIn, Yahoo! and eHarmony, to name just a few, this year alone. So how is the BYOD landscape affecting the corporate boardroom?
Antony Savvas’ article in Computerworld UK highlights the work that still needs to be done. He states that data security is now the main concern in the boardroom for corporate America (55% of general counsels rate data security as a major concern). The quote from TK Kerstetter, president of Corporate Board Member, caught my eye, especially when you consider he’s speaking after the breaches I mention above…
“I hate to say this, but I think it is going to take several well-publicised security breaches before a majority of corporate boards finally embrace the fact that doing business today without a prudent crisis plan in place is a formula for disaster.”
Researchers at Gartner say BYOD programs will prove to be the ‘most radical’ shift in enterprise client computing since the advent of the PC. As with most issues, small and medium businesses are likely to get caught out if they don’t adopt adequate security policies, as the chances are that the majority of employees will be using devices they have purchased personally – and often don’t even think to lock.
In Nathan Eddy’s article in eWeek, for example, he references a survey by Coalfire that suggests people remain lax when it comes to mobile device security. 47% of respondents have no passcode on their mobile phone, even though 84% of individuals stated they use the same smartphone for personal and work usage.
Jennifer LeClaire at CIO Today has an opinion too. She references an iPass report that claims only 55% of mobile workers said they had remote wipe enabled on their smartphones and only 30% activated this security feature on their tablets.
It seems that everyone has a view on BYOD policies, so after reading this, tell us – what’s yours?
