The security threat of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives

2021 BYOD Security Report reveals that security teams lack the visibility and technology needed to secure unmanaged personal devices against modern threats.

Bitglass, the Total Cloud Security company, today announced several findings from its 2021 BYOD Security Report that reveal the rapid adoption of unmanaged personal devices connecting to work-related resources (aka BYOD) and why organisations are ill-equipped to deal with growing security threats such as malware and data theft.

The study, a joint venture with Cybersecurity Insiders, surveyed hundreds of cybersecurity professionals across industries to understand better how COVID-19’s resulting surge of remote work has affected security and privacy risks introduced by the use of personal mobile devices. The insights in this report are especially relevant as more enterprises are shifting to permanent remote work or hybrid work models, connecting more devices to corporate networks and, as a result, expanding the attack surface.

“As mobility and remote work environments keep growing, so do challenges ranging from managing device access to handling urgent mobile security concerns,” said Holger Schulze, founder, Cybersecurity Insiders. “Our research uncovered a plethora of evidence that shows organisations are not paying enough attention to securing unmanaged personal devices and why the time is now for them to think differently when it comes to securing BYOD.” 

Key Findings from the Bitglass 2021 BYOD Security Report:   

BYOD is here to stay 

The shift to remote work amid the pandemic resulted in 47 percent of organisations reporting increased personal devices being used for work. As a result, a total of 82 percent of organisations said they now actively enable BYOD to some extent. While individual devices have helped businesses improve employee productivity and satisfaction while also reducing costs, challenges associated with managing device access and mobile security remain. 

Securing BYOD to prevent data loss/theft is a top concern  

The most critical concern respondents expressed was data leakage or loss (62 percent). Other apprehensions included:

• Users downloading unsafe apps or content (54 percent).
• Lost or stolen devices (53 percent).
• Unauthorised access to company data and systems (51 percent). 

Enterprises are running blind when it comes to securing BYOD devices against modern security threats.

Only 22 percent of organisations indicated they can confirm that unmanaged devices have downloaded malware in the past 12 months. However, nearly half (49 percent) indicated they are not sure or could not disclose whether the same could be said for them. This lack of visibility can be detrimental to the overall business.

Many organisations are securing BYOD with old tools vs modern threats

A total of 41 percent of organisations reported relying on endpoint malware protection for BYOD—an approach that is not ideal for personal devices which are hard to control and manage. Over a quarter (30 percent) of firms said they don’t protect against malware for BYOD at all.While cloud-based malware protection tools are often a far better fit, only 11 percent of organisations surveyed are currently using these measures. 

“As enterprises begin to shift to hybrid work environments, personal devices will provide the flexibility and remote access that employees require. This new way of working, however, will undoubtedly stretch the resources of security teams,” said Anurag Kahol, CTO, Bitglass. “This is why there has never been a more important time for enterprises to rethink their approach seriously and secure all forms of communication amongst users, devices, apps, or web destinations.” 

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Methodology 

Cybersecurity Insiders surveyed 271 cybersecurity professionals, conducted in April 2021, to gain deep insight into mobile BYOD security threats faced by organisations and the solutions to prevent and remediate them. The respondents range from technical executives to IT security practitioners, representing a balanced cross-section of organisations of varying sizes across multiple industries.

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