Three security hurdles to compromise BYOD

Gartner research confirms the three main things to consider

User issues must be at the forefront when enterprises are considering a BYOD migration, according to Gartner Research.

The research behemoth has confirmed three main concerns to address when moving an organisation to BYOD – and all three involve the end user.

Impact 1 – The right of users to actually use their personal devices conflicts with enterprise mobile security policies and increases the risk of data leaks and vulnerability exploits.

Impact 2 – If users have freedom to choose their own device, this can result in a proliferation of devices with inadequate security and make it even harder to keep them all up to date.

Impact 3 – The user's ownership of the device, and at least some of the data on it, raises privacy concerns and stands in the way of taking corrective action on compromised devices.

Dionisio Zumerle, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement: "Policies and tools initially put in place to deal with mobile devices offering consumer-grade security must be revised to deal with these devices being under the ultimate control of a private user, rather than the organisation."

Gartner went on to suggest that mobile device management (MDM) software as well as network access control could play a useful role in resolving these issues. Also, consultation with the legal department – particularly when it came to the liabilities of Impact 3 – would be important.

The poll also revealed that 70 per cent of respondents were adopting or planning to adopt BYOD policies in the next 12 months. Thirty-three per cent of all organisations surveyed currently had BYOD policies in place for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.