The state of BYOD and mobile device security

Bitglass has released its 2018 BYOD Security Report. The analysis is based on a survey of nearly 400 enterprise IT experts who revealed the state of BYOD and mobile device security in their organizations.

According to the study, 85 percent of organizations are embracing BYOD. Interestingly, many organizations are even allowing contractors, partners, customers, and suppliers to access corporate data on their personal devices.

Amidst this BYOD frenzy, over half of the survey’s respondents believe that the volume of threats to mobile devices has increased over the past twelve months.

Key findings

• Organizations are embracing BYOD, making it available to employees (76 percent), contractors (27 percent), partners (25 percent), customers (22 percent), and suppliers (19 percent).
• 51 percent of respondents believe the number of threats targeting mobile devices has increased in the past year. Unfortunately, only 30 percent of firms are confident that they are properly defending against malware on personal and mobile devices.
• 30 percent of enterprises cite company security concerns as the leading inhibitor to BYOD adoption; specifically, they are worried about data leakage (61 percent), unauthorized data access (53 percent), and the inability to control uploads and downloads (53 percent).
• One in five organizations lacks visibility into basic, native mobile apps (like email) on personal devices.
• Only 56 percent of companies can employ key functionality like remote wipe for removing sensitive data from endpoints.

“While most companies believe mobile devices are being targeted more than ever, our findings indicate that many still lack the basic tools needed to secure data in BYOD environments,” said Rich Campagna, CMO of Bitglass. “Enterprises should feel empowered to take advantage of BYOD’s myriad benefits, but must employ comprehensive, real-time security if they want to do so safely and successfully.”