May 22, 2014

The risk of sharing business files has been felt by many organizations as they adopt policies allowing employees to work on personal devices and access work resources at any time. Bring-your-own-device initiatives are incorporated into company operations on a growing basis, making it necessary to provide additional protection for sensitive information. As more equipment enters the business space, the concerns increase, but decision makers could be going about enforcing safety the wrong way.

While many organizations have computers for their staff, many workers have chosen to bring smartphone and tablets into work in order to be more efficient. According to a recent survey by Dimensional Research, even though 97 percent stated that the mobility boosts employee effectiveness, 75 percent are concerned about the security of business data on the devices. These worries could also stem from the ability of IT to deliver capable applications and ensure support for all hardware. Although there are numerous third-party programs that can introduce further security vulnerabilities, IT can provide enterprise-grade file sharing solutions such as Memeo C1 to mitigate potential risks. The program offers substantial protection capabilities in addition to empowering workers to collaborate without fear of compromising sensitive data.

“While small and mid-sized businesses continue to witness rapid tablet adoption, the research shows IT professionals still face daunting challenges in securely delivering legacy business applications to new, modern tablets,” Dimensional Research senior analyst Diane Hagglund said. “Survey respondents widely acknowledge that tablet adoption provides considerable business impact, but more work clearly needs to be done in order to address their needs and fulfill the business promise.”

Too much focus placed on the hardware
While protecting the device itself is traditionally recommended, putting all of the organization’s cards into its security could be inefficient. According to ComputerWeekly, concentrating on the equipment is one of the worst and most common errors to make in protecting mobile environments. The focus should instead be directed toward the data itself, which must be kept safe throughout its lifecycle and various transfers. To do this, IT should aim to secure in-motion information at the same level as in the enterprise itself. This could mean leveraging remote wipe capabilities, mobile access control and encryption.

“Security should not be about the technology; it should be about the data and protecting that data wherever it is used, and about educating employees to access data securely,” Paul Swarbrick, global CISO at legal firm Norton Rose Fulbright, told the source.