A recent report of security company Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP), named The Impact of Mobile Devices on Information Security, showed 71% of businesses believe mobile devices have caused an increase in security incidents, citing significant concerns about the loss and privacy of sensitive information stored on employee devices, including corporate email (79%), customer data (47%) and network login credentials (38%).
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This increased concern could be linked to the the increased number of personal mobile devices connecting to corporate networks. According to the report, 94% of businesses surveyed have an increased number of personal mobile devices connecting to the corporate network, with 78% of respondents seeing the number of devices more than double in the last two years.
Smartphones and tablets that continue to proliferate in corporate environments, as well as the consumerization of IT, is among the top concerns for CIOs this coming year. The survey noted Apple (30%) and BlackBerry (29%) devices were the most common types of mobile devices connecting to corporate networks, followed by Android (21%). Nearly half of respondents (43%) also believe Android devices pose a larger security risk to the mobile enterprise.
The explosion of mobile devices connecting to the corporate network often creates greater opportunities for data loss and increased security management complexity. The majority of businesses believe the lack of security awareness among employees is the greatest reason for their concerns, followed by mobile Web browsing (61%), Wi-Fi connectivity (59%), lost or stolen devices (58%) and malicious mobile application downloads (57%).
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