The Key Reason Why Some Enterprises Outright Refuse to Enable BYOD

Most IT professionals say employees are allowed to use personal devices for work. And while the use of personal devices at work is growing rapidly, many are unprepared to balance productivity with security, new data shows.

Bitglass researchers sought to understand how businesses have enabled the use of personal devices, what their BYOD security concerns and challenges are, and what actions they have taken to protect data in the increasingly remote and flexible work environment brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The firm surveyed IT professionals and enlisted the help of a “leading cybersecurity community” and learned that 69% of organizations allow their staff to work on personal devices. Some even let contractors, partners, customers and suppliers do so.

When asked for their main BYOD security concerns, 63% of respondents cited data leakage, 53% named unauthorized access to data and systems, and 52% referred to malware infections.

Organizations are blindly allowing BYOD as they lack any visibility into file-sharing apps, 51% of IT professionals agreed. Another 30% said their firm has no visibility or control over mobile enterprise messaging tools, and only 9% have cloud-based anti-malware solutions in place.

And there’s another problem, this time threatening the security and privacy of the employees themselves:

“Organizations need physical access to devices and even device PINs to secure them. This may be acceptable for managed endpoints, but it is a clear invasion of privacy where BYOD is enabled,” according to the report.

In fact, these hurdles are the key reason some enterprises hesitate to enable BYOD, Bitglass researchers said.

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