Are the devices connecting to your corporate network secure? Are they protected by effective passwords and antivirus software?

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Home » News & Events » Industry News » 2012 » August 2012 » Study: 350 million employee-owned devices in the enterprise by 2014

Study: 350 million employee-owned devices in the enterprise by 2014

By Brian Christini 6 Aug 2012

byod, mobile device management, policies

Are the devices conecting to your corporate network secure? Are they protected by effective passwords and antivirus software?

While those are the types of questions causing concern for many business leaders, a recent study by Juniper found many employees connect to the enterprise network without securing their devices. As a recent Apps Tech News article reported, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) is on the rise, and has jeopardized mobile device security for many professionals.

More BYOD, more mobile device security concerns
According to the article, there will be 350 million employee-owned smartphones and tablets operating in businesses in the next two years, up from the 150 million currently in the enterprise environment. Despite the high number of mobile devices, many employees have no security software installed—a big threat when combined with the increasing growth in mobile shopping, payments and banking.

The reality of BYOD was also discussed in a recent IT Business Edge article. The article highlighted comments from Peter Frankl, Senior Vice President for lifecycle management at Absolute Software, who said BYOD presents challenges, but can end up paying for itself when properly managed. Frankl said one of the challenges with issuing company devices is keeping up with technology.

"The point is that even if IT bought those people a mobile computing device, within the year many of those same people would be looking to attach the next cool thing to the corporate network long before the device IT gave them either depreciated or was eligible for an upgrade," the article hypothesized.

Leveraging mobile device management (MDM)
Another point Frankl made was that ignoring BYOD could end up posing more risks than BYOD itself. This means IT departments need to take a proactive approach, starting with policy. Once a clear policy has been established—one that addresses potential compliance and security concerns as well as employee privacy—companies can begin looking for a mobile device management solution that meets specific business needs.

Effective mobile device management solutions address problems such as lax security practices by employees. Are there employees falling behind in installing the latest security patches for their OS? That's fine on their own devices, but MDM can prevent those insecure devices from accessing critical business applications and data. By making every employee more secure, businesses can protect data and ensure compliance with stringent security standards.

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