Nearly three quarters — 73% — of US office workers using enterprise-owned tablets download personal software and apps, while 52% use personal laptops, tablets and smartphones to store and work on enterprise content.
That’s the finding of a survey of a US-wide 2,000 office workers aged 18-65, interviewed by research firm Ipsos MORI in a study commissioned by the cloud collaboration services company Huddle.
Almost two thirds (62%) do the same on company-issued smartphones and 45% on enterprise-issued laptops, according to the survey. The results highlight the potential security risks resulting from increasingly blurred lines between personal and enterprise devices.
While the majority of the 44% of US office workers using company-issued devices download personal software such as iTunes, Spotify and Dropbox, 52% admitted to storing, sharing and working on work documents via their personal smartphones, tablets and laptops.
While 23% of office workers are aware of their organization’s Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, the study reveals that personal devices are coexisting with enterprise-issued gadgets in the workplace rather than replacing them. According to the office workers surveyed:
37% of workers store work documents on their personal laptop;
12% store enterprise documents on their smartphone;
8% store company documents on their personal tablets;
20% of workers want to use their personal devices for work purposes; and
6% of office workers have lost either a laptop, smartphone, or tablet enterprise device.
With the countless devices and applications in today’s organizations eroding the concept of the corporate network and mobile working becoming more established, companies are presented with a security conundrum. As well as ensuring the safety of enterprise data when it leaves the company’s four walls, companies need to also mitigate the risk of employees inadvertently downloading viruses or other malware their phones, tablets and laptops.
According to the study, office workers in the 25 – 31 and 32 – 38 year old age groups are the worst offenders for downloading personal apps and software on company-issued devices:
57% of 25 – 31 year olds and 55% of 32 – 38 year olds download personal apps and software onto enterprise laptops;
81% of 32 – 38 year olds and 70% of 25 – 31 year olds download personal apps and software onto enterprise smartphones; and
82% of 32 – 38 year olds download personal apps and software onto enterprise tablets.
When it comes to stashing enterprise content on personal laptops, tablets and smartphones, office workers aged 18 – 24 years old are the most likely culprits:
51% keep work documents on personal laptops;
42% store work files on personal smartphones; and
11% keep enterprise documents on personal tablets.
Ipsos MORI interviewed a representative sample of 2,000 office workers aged 18-65 drawn from its Panel of 921,000 people in the US via an online questionnaire between 2nd and 9th April 2013.
