Workers May Be Biggest Threat to Mobile Security

With more workers than ever accessing sensitive work data on their mobile devices, it would seem that protecting data in a BYOD (bring-your-own-device) environment would be a top priority. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Mobile security provider Absolute Software recently released the results of a survey, conducted in November, 2013, of 750 U.S. employees who use their mobile devices for work, and these disturbing findings surfaced: Nearly one-fourth of the workers didn't even know if their company had policies to deal with lost phones. Almost one in six consider their personal data priceless, but none of the respondents characterized work data that way. In addition, more than one-third of those who'd lost a work phone said they faced no consequences as a result. What's more, nearly three out of five respondents who had lost phones said they didn't even change their security habits as a result. Clearly, it behooves employers to do a better job of communicating just how critical it is to protect the data residing on mobile devices. "If firms don't set clear policies that reflect the priority of corporate data security, they can't expect employees to make it a priority on their own," says Tim Williams, Absolute's director of product management. "Clear policies, articulated properly to employees, will ensure that the entire company, not just IT, unites against mobile data loss."