Main image of article Latest Check Point Study Highlights Dangers of BYOD
Check Point's second annual mobile security survey found an increasing number of connected mobile devices, with BYOD growing quickly. Nearly half of the of 790 respondents -- IT professionals in the U.S., Canada, UK, Germany and Japan -- say they have five times the mobile devices connected to their networks compared to two years ago. Mobile devices are also now connected to more networks, 93 percent this year compared to 89 percent in last year's survey. More than half of large businesses report mobile security incidents have occurred, and losses have been heavy. With companies of over 5,000 employees, more than half reported that the cost of mobile security exceeded $500,000 over the year. Android was cited by 49 percent of businesses as the platform with the greatest perceived security risk (up from 30 percent last year). What is even scarier is that 93 percent of those surveyed face challenges adopting BYOD policies, including securing corporate information, tracking access to corporate data and updating their devices. Almost two thirds of the respondents who have personally owned devices that are connected to their corporate networks don't manage them in any way, with only 155 using some form of mobile device management tool. Types of corporate information stored on mobile devices include email (up from 79 percent in last year's survey to 88 percent this year), customer information and network login credentials. That's somewhat depressing, especially since careless employees are seen as more of a security risk than outside hackers. This year's survey can be found here, and you can compare it to last year's survey here.