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Survey: Managers Fear Dangers Posed by Rogue Mobile Devices

US companies remain exposed in front of cyberattacks

Oct 31, 2011 07:33 GMT  ·  By
PDAs pose major risks if not properly supervised by companies
   PDAs pose major risks if not properly supervised by companies

A recent survey reveals that even though organizations are trying hard to protect their infrastructure against threats coming from the Internet, unauthorized mobile devices utilized by employees still raise the most concerns.

The poll released by Deloitte was conduced during the “Securing Enterprise Social Media and Mobility Apps” series, 1200 information technology and business execs from the US taking part in the study which tried to determine where companies stand when it comes to mobile security.

The figures show that 40% have no idea if their firms have strategies, policies or technology controls set in place to monitor and handle mobile apparatus and the risks imposed by the use of rogue devices.

Also, close to 30% of the respondents are almost certain that smartphones and tablets are used by their staff members to access parts of their network, especially e-mail services, this posing a large threat on the workflow and data security in general.

Almost 90% of the questioned people believe their enterprises are highly exposed to attacks that would originate from insecure portable machines. Operational risks, infrastructure and device risks, technological and legal risks are considered the main areas in which organizations are vulnerable.

“Devices like tablets, PDAs and smartphones have become ubiquitous over the past few years as people increasingly purchase them as tools to enhance their productivity at work and at home,” stated JR Regan, principal, Deloitte & Touche LLP and innovation leader to Deloitte’s federal practice.

“Despite the benefit of these new devices, they also present increased security threats for organizations which now must be wary of security threats originating from new channels.”

Unfortunately, it seems as the recent issues that revolve around the use of personal mobile devices at the workplace didn't attract the attention of companies as they should have, most of them still being exposed to the operations of cybercriminals.

The survey was conducted in the US, but the rest of the world isn't doing much better, most firms failing to see the dangers posed by the lack of proper policies regarding personal portable computing machines.