Only 1 in 10 keeps work files safe on mobiles: Study

NEW DELHI: Eleven percent people are concerned about keeping their work files safe on mobile devices, a survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab in conjunction with B2B International shows.

It said that around half of the consumers surveyed use their devices for work and only one in 10 is seriously concerned about keeping work information safe.

One way or another, many employees of large and medium-sized companies use personal mobile devices for work. Thirty-six percent of respondents store work files on them, and 34% keep work-related email messages.

Sometimes, more confidential information can also be found on users’ devices, such as passwords to corporate email accounts (18%), networks or VPNs (11%) and such information represents a valuable prize for cybercriminals hunting for corporate secrets, the survey said.

To keep attacks from cybercriminals under check, it is important to integrate BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) into the IT infrastructure of a company. There are many other ways to ward off such attacks such as:

BYOD integration should be regarded as a specific project; this is especially true for large businesses. Every last detail of the integration process should be designed beforehand; and this should ideally include an infrastructure audit, a design stage and a pilot implementation.

To effectively protect mobile devices, it is important to use a comprehensive solution that ensures security across the entire corporate network, not one that focuses only on mobile devices. Without this, compatibility problems may arise and create extra work for system administrators.

Managing mobile devices in a large business requires additional skills over and above those demanded by routine system administration. It is worth ensuring there are appropriately qualified IT security specialists on the team. These can provide centralized management for all mobile devices within the corporate network, ensure that all mobile applications are installed, removed and/or updated via dedicated corporate portals, and regulate data access levels and employee privileges.

The business needs to develop robust scenarios for how to remove personal devices from the corporate network if they are lost or stolen, or if an employee leaves the company. A procedure should be developed to remove confidential corporate data from these devices and block access to the corporate network.