73% of organizations say BYOD increases security risks

Findings from a Kensington survey on the security risks created by BYOD policies in the enterprise show that 73 percent believe that BYOD represents greater security risks for their organization, and yet 59 percent still approve the use of personal devices for business usage.

The survey found that across multiple B2B vertical industries – including Education, Healthcare, Financial Services, Retail and Manufacturing – CEOs, CIOs, CSO, and IT professionals are significantly concerned with how BYOD is impacting the security of their enterprise environments.

To address these concerns a number of physical security measures are being leveraged with varying adoption and as many as 55 percent report that they are considering further investments in this security area.

Physical security measures in use by survey respondents included:

• 64 percent use employee training and guidelines
• 61 percent use anti-malware and encryption
• 55 percent have employed compliance and governance policies
• 48 percent use data loss prevention and authentication solutions.

“With the rapid rise in the use of mobile devices and laptops, organizations need to become vigilant in their ability to protect those devices from the risk of theft or loss that may put critical business and personal data in the wrong hands,” said Judy Barker, Global Product Marketing Manager, Kensington.

“With the BYOD onslaught, this risk is even more critical. By employing simple and secure device locking mechanisms organizations can easily safeguard their data, their brand and their reputation, with the immediacy they need to avert this threat.”