Businesses are facing a potential security nightmare as more and more employees are using personal devices for work-related tasks, according to new research carried out by Sourcefire and Dynamic Markets.
The survey also found that while workers are fully aware of the risks they would carry on doing so even if asked to stop.
According to a survey of over 500 workers at large UK companies, 69% of employees use a personal device for work, 71% move data on and off the corporate network and 83% admitted to being aware that such actions pose a risk to their company. Despite this one in three said they would carry on using them regardless.
It seems that workers are taking their lead from the top of the organisation when it comes to using personal devices – 96% of senior managers and directors use their own devices for work tasks.
The most commonly used personal devices were laptops (48%), home PCs (44%) smartphones (16%), USB sticks (32%) and 17% use their own CD-ROMs.
The notion that the lines between work life and private life are blurring has been covered by CBR before; and this survey backs up the idea. Nearly all (98%) of workers have a personal email account and one quarter admit to using it for work-related tasks over the last year.
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While many (18%) used it to keep up with work while corporate emails were down, 12% said they had used it to receive legitimate work documents that were being blocked by the company’s firewall, while 11% said it was used to send emails avoiding the firewall.
While companies may worry about the potential security issues workers are convinced that their actions benefit them and their company. The vast majority (75%) feel positive about the consequences of their actions, while 46% said that it makes them more productive. Nearly one-third (30%) feel it enables them to go the extra mile and 21% think it enables them to work longer hours. Rather than worry about what their bosses may think of their actions 27% think that the company should be grateful they are so conscientious.
If their company did introduce a ban of using personal devices at work 70% think the repercussions would be negative. A drop in efficiency (44%) and resentment among workers (20%) were the most common consequences.
Some workers (7%) even said that they would think about changing jobs if the use of personal devices was banned. John Armstrong from law firm Duane Morris said that this figure was not surprises as more young people enter the workplace with certain expectations about what devices they can and can’t use.
"There is less loyalty and people will change jobs – they think that if they are not allowed to use them they will go somewhere where they can. There is not much respect for IP because the younger people are part of the ‘Napster generation’, they file-share rather than go out and buy music," he said at a roundtable event held to discuss the results of the survey.
So where does the responsibility lie? Exactly half of those quizzed said that it is ultimately the responsibility of all workers but worryingly 41% said it was up to the IT department to secure the devices that it does not even own.
