Employees too often store company data on personal devices

Employees too often store company data on personal devices

Employees still have a habit of storing sensitive company data on personal devices.

That’s according to research by SlashNext. Nearly three-quarters of employees surveyed said they still store sensitive company data on private devices. The number of data breaches going through these personal devices also continues to rise.

The researchers found that the use of personal devices, as well as personal applications for work, were often the cause of attacks. They expect the trend to continue as BYOD remains popular. In addition, employees use a business-enhanced device in addition to a personal device, so the attack surface will only increase.

Employers know about dangers

The survey further shows that employers are well aware of the danger of BYOD. For about 90 percent of security experts, it is top priority. Nevertheless, only 63 percent of the security experts surveyed indicate that they have the right tools to adequately protect employees’ personal devices.

Phishing attacks via private messaging apps are of particular concern. 43 percent of employees would have been affected by a phishing attack in this way.

Difficult to solve

Companies indicate in the survey that a solution to the problem is not yet in sight. For example, they are reluctant to check their employees’ personal devices for the presence of sensitive (company) data. Legally, they see few possibilities for this or do not want to take action as a result.

Providing business devices to employees is also difficult because employees always keep their private devices on. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, this also increases the attack surface again.

Also read: Cato Networks recognizes BYOD devices for new network access policies