Personal mobile devices - a threat to company security

AirTight Networks surveyed 316 experts in the field of information technology and security, in order to clarify the influence of the concept of BYOD and the growing number of threats related to the use of personal mobile devices, the security of corporate networks.


The results were officially announced at the opening of the conference Infosecurity Europe 2012.

According to the results, more than 60% of respondents believe the ability to use personal devices for business purposes a good way to reduce IT costs and improve efficiency of their work, despite the threat of corporate information security. Also, 86% of respondents reported already existing large number of mobile devices in a corporate environment, and only 11% that the use of personal devices in their company is prohibited.

"Analysis of the data in the survey helped us to understand that most organizations are making unsuccessful attempts to limit or prohibit employees bring and use personal devices at work - said Praveen Bhagavad (PravinBhagwat), CTO of AirTight. - IPhone, iPad, Android, Tablet PCs increasingly penetrate the corporate environment. In modern culture the use of mobile devices and concepts, we often find BYOD 3 times more unmanageable personal devices than corporate in the airspace of the client. The key to network security is to manage these devices. "

The situation is further complicated by the fact that in most organizations, authorized users to connect personal devices to corporate networks WPA2/802.1x need only their standard username and password, no additional authorization from the administrator is not required. Such actions threaten the entire corporate network, creating a risk of infection by malware, hacking and leakage of corporate data.

"For companies, it is important to prevent a wave of threats associated with unmanaged personal devices to corporate networks, to understand and take advantage of technologies such as WIPS, NAC, and MDM, control devices, warnings, threats, and improve employee productivity," - said Mr. Bhagavad.