Many small-business owners believe BYOD (bring-your-own-device) poses no threat to their company and have no interest in spending effort on mobile device security, while employees themselves think security is the responsibility of the business, a study by Kaspersky Lab has found.
A total of 6,219 respondents from 21 countries (Including India with 299 Respondents) took part in this year’s B2B Brand Tracking 2014. Respondents represented companies employing 1-1500+ people. All respondents were categorized according to the size of their business Very Small Business (VSB, 1-50 employees), Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB, 50-1500 employees) or Enterprise (1500+ employees). The survey was conducted from October to November 2014.
All participants answered questions concerning the main obstacles they faced when building and maintaining a reliable IT infrastructure. Respondents also answered questions about the resources they use to learn about data protection and how they choose their IT solutions.
With the study showing that two-thirds (62%) of business owners and employees now use personal mobile devices for work, BYOD is no longer a developing trend, but a widely accepted business practice. It affects companies of all sizes, from the very large (5000+ employees) to the small (fewer than 25 employees).
In India, many users of free products have upgraded to a paid-for home solution due to their desire for increased security. However, they were unwilling to pay for a more expensive and complicated business solution. This change is partly the result of a new trend in flexible business operations offices have become remote and people are increasingly working with their own devices. There may therefore be no reason for a business to buy a complex and expensive solution if employees already have solutions at home. The employer simply needs to permit them to work at home and use home computers.
Representatives of smaller businesses, who tend to be less interested in specific protection for mobile devices, believe that the basic security tools offered within free solutions should be sufficient. They don’t see any added value in spending extra money on dedicated solutions. More than 80% of respondents were not interested in information about managing the information security of mobile devices.
“It is increasingly rare to come across a business professional who doesn’t use their own mobile device for work. A laptop or smartphone enables you to do a large part of your business tasks remotely, from any global location. However, the loss of important corporate data via personal devices is a common occurrence, and a negligent attitude towards the security of mobile devices could pose a serious risk to a company’s business. That is why it is important to use a reliable dedicated solution that addresses all modern requirements and market trends,” said Konstantin Voronkov, Head of Endpoint Product Management, Kaspersky Lab.
