Amidst a growing threat of data breaches, 32% of employees would feign flu or go on vacation with their mother-in-law rather than tell their boss about a lost mobile device.
According to a survey conducted by Osterman Research on behalf of security firm Certify, about 15% of the employees believe that they have zero to minimal responsibility in protecting corporate data stored on their personal devices.
About 10% of the employees had not programmed a password, PIN or other security measure into their mobile work devices.
Osterman Research principal Michael Osterman said the results show that even employees of large multinational corporations, who are consistently warned of the dangers to their data, are not being mindful of security threats.
"It is clear organisations need to continue to educate employees on the dangers and risks of mobile security, but also look to solutions that safeguard the devices and applications which these employees have access to," Osterman said.
The survey also found that more than 15% of employees reported having their personal account or password compromised, while 45%have installed more than six third-party applications in their work devices.
Almost half access sensitive corporate data through their mobile work device on an unsecured public network, which could pose a serious danger to sensitive data.
Centrify CEO Tom Kemp said: "As the survey shows, corporate employees are now leveraging applications on their devices to get their jobs done. As a result, there is greater need than ever for unified security identity across multiple devices and platforms."