The concept of BYOD is an "unregulated mess" that companies need to address urgently, a respected IT security expert has warned.
CEO of InfoWatch and former Kaspersky Lab CEO, Natalya Kasperky, believes that the only companies that utilise BYOD are ones that do not realise that it is a security risk or are aware but willing to risk data breaches.
She said: "I don’t even think BYOD is a concept at all, honestly speaking. In my opinion, it’s a mess that was given a beautiful name. It is an unregulated mess.
"Bring your own device, means that you’re letting your employees use any device and any software they want. In terms of security it’s very difficult to manage – almost impossible – because no tool exists at the moment that covers all possible mobile devices, with all supports, upgrades and updates. That’s a problem.
"If you wanted to use BYOD and control this mess, you’re looking at securing data across more than 3,000 platforms. Nobody does this.
"When we talk about BYOD, there are two scenarios. First case, the company thinks it doesn’t need security at all. It’s careless. It thinks that information is not important so it sees no reason not to let employess bring their own devices to work.
"The second scenario is when a company understands it has leakages and problems. It allows BYOD, although it understands that there is potential for data security to be breached."