Sunday, December 20, 2009

Enterprise mobility - Many clueless on employees’ mobile data devices

[telecom expense mgmt] Recent research shows that two in three European companies have no clue what and how much corporate data is housed on employees’ mobile devices. Of those surveyed, two in three companies said they are not fully aware of exactly what sensitive data is stored on employees’ mobile devices and—perhaps more troubling—38 percent said they don’t even know what applications are being run by employees on their smartphones. Moreover, only 15 percent of respondents said that they are “completely confident” that they would be legally protected should an employee’s mobile device be lost or stolen and whatever data contained on the device fell in the wrong person’s or organization’s hands.

Troubling figures…. Smartphones keep employees connected to their work however from a security standpoint, this disconnect poses significant problems for companies that are torn between empowering their employees and locking down the sensitive data they must exchange to do their jobs. In addition to the corporate data there is a lot of valuable personal data on the employee mobile device (pictures, videos, applications, ringtones, personal address book,..) as lines have blurred between the professional and personal life. Employees will back-up this data locally on their computer or somewhere in the “cloud”, posing an even more challenging situation from a security standpoint. Throw in the mix the adoption of (mobile) applications, with the Apple Appstore leading the way in the enterprise/professional world, and the cost of transmission not being free (at best fair usage or roaming fees)….the situation becomes even more critical to resolve. Ignoring the challenge is not an option for most enterprises.

Many enterprises clueless on Mobile Data on employees’ mobile devices

No comments: