Channel partners looking to help customers implement bring-your-own-device enterprise mobility plays may have to bring all of their trusted advisor capabilities to bear in order to shore up security. According to a new survey from Aruba Networks, 66 percent of American respondents fear the loss of personal data from their employer. This reticence is driven by negative perceptions of corporate IT departments, particularly what the IT team might do with the employee’s personal device and data.
These concerns are leading many employees to keep their personal devices away from the IT department altogether, which is jeopardizing company data. Around one in six American employees (17 percent) have not told their employers that they use a personal device for work.
“The research from both sides of the Atlantic shows that employees and IT departments are gambling with data security, but chance isn’t the only factor,” said Ben Gibson, CMO of Aruba Networks. “In short, employees resent the power their employers now wield over their personal data, but are equally unconcerned about keeping company data safe.”
When asked how they would feel if their personal data was accessed by their IT department, around half (46 percent) of respondents in the U.S. said they would feel “violated” by the news.
“We are now well beyond the point of discussing BYOD as something on the horizon,” Gibson continued. “It is a reality across the world and businesses need to adopt solutions that give their employees greater privacy for their personal data as well as exert greater network controls to ensure that sensitive information is not leaked, without disrupting the user experience.”
A full 45 percent of U.S. BYOD workers worry about IT department access to their personal data. The report also found that and more than half of Americans (51 percent) claim that their IT department takes no steps to ensure the security of corporate files and applications on their personal devices.
Even more concerning for business is that a percentage– 11 percent–in the U.S. said that they would not report that their personal device had been compromised, even if it leaked company data. A further 36 percent of U.S. employees would not report leaked data immediately—offering big ramifications for security profiles.
