Studies Show BYOD Still a Vexing Issue for IT and Employees

Five Barriers for Enterprise Mobility

Network World took a look at a study by tyntec that suggested that “a vast majority” of companies don’t protect themselves adequately from BYOD issues. About half (49 percent) of these firms have employees that at least partially use their own devices at work, which poses huge security risks. To that end, Molson Coors’ CIO Christine Vanderpool offers three lists that look at the risks of BYOD, risk issues to keep in mind and data access and security considerations.

Two surveys by Bitglass were highlighted by eWeek where they found that employees and even IT personnel are not happy with mobile device management (MDM) platforms, which they fear can access, alter or delete personnel data.

People who work for an organization don’t want to be in a situation in which their personal data is under the control of their employer. The most telling statistics from the surveys show that IT personnel – the very people who will be called upon to make such programs work – are almost as skeptical as the folks from PR and accounting about MDM platforms and BYOD:

The report found 57 percent of users and 38 percent of IT professionals do not participate in a company BYOD program because they do not want employers’ IT departments to have visibility into their personal data and applications.

Via Dell’s blog, Zeus Kerravala discussed research that his firm ran that found that 82 percent of businesses have a BYOD plan in place. That isn’t exactly what the tyntec study measured – it looked specifically at security – but it suggests that there is a disconnect between the two. More importantly, Kerravala cites data from a security firm study that highlights the depth of the challenge:

The Check Point survey found that organizations with more than 2,000 devices on the network have a 50 percent chance that at least six of them are infected. The survey also showed that almost three-quarters of respondents felt that the top mobile security challenge is protecting corporate information on mobile devices. This makes sense considering that workers will access company data from almost everywhere.

Despite the convenience, perhaps BYOD is still too dangerous to the enterprise.

Protecting the organization’s data is the first concern, but for companies that still offer BYOD, it is of utmost importance to introduce technology that also protects employee data. Once the technology is in place, be sure to alert employees to the company BYOD plan and make sure they feel that the company data and their own are both secure.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at cweinsch@optonline.net and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.