IDC: Enterprise having trouble securing consumer technology
13 July 2011 13:34:10
A new study from research firm IDC revealed that many enterprise IT department are struggling to accommodate the growth of consumer technology in the workplace - a trend that may lead to data security issues down the line.
In a survey of more than 3,000 IT professionals and information workers, the research firm found that the use of employee-purchased devices, such as smartphones, tablets and PCs, has increased from 30.7 percent of devices last year to 40.7 percent this year, IDG News Service reported.
However, IT departments are not taking steps to support these devices. According to the report, there is a significant gap between the number of personal devices IT managers use for business and the number of workers who say they use their own devices.
Additionally, many IT departments do not support employee-owned smartphones and tablets. This could pose significant data security challenges. If an employee-owned device isn't equipped with certain data protection capabilities, a company's data may be at risk if the device is lost or stolen.
A separate report from Osterman Research revealed similar a state of unpreparedness among enterprise IT departments. According to that report, 84 percent of surveyed companies support consumerized IT, but many have trouble securing the technology.
-McAfee Cloud Security
