WOBURN, MA — (Marketwired) — 07/17/13 — A new survey from and the reveals that a majority of companies are putting critical data at risk by not having secure bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies in place. By ignoring simple security steps and employee BYOD education, companies are jeopardizing their confidential data, exposing it to theft, corruption, hackers, malware and more.
Acronis- 2013 Data Protection Trends Research, which evaluated responses from more than 4,300 IT professionals in eight countries, discovered that:
Almost 60 percent have no personal device policy in place, and, among those with policies, 24 percent make exceptions for executives, who may handle even more sensitive data. As a result, these organizations are increasingly vulnerable to data loss and serious compliance issues.
A number of organizations are still in denial when it comes to BYOD trends, as more than 30 percent surveyed actually forbid personal devices from accessing the network.
Nearly 80 percent of organizations haven-t educated employees on BYOD privacy risks.
Just 31 percent of companies mandate a device password or key lock on personal devices, and only 21 percent perform remote device wipes when employees leave the company, drastically increasing the risk for data leakage.
Corporate files are commonly shared through third-party cloud storage solutions such as DropBox, but 67 percent of organizations don-t have a policy in place around public clouds and 80 percent haven-t trained employees in the proper use of these platforms.
While 65 percent of organizations will support Macs® in the next year, more than half (57 percent) say compatibility and interoperability are still big obstacles to getting Macs compliant with IT, which puts data stored and shared across the corporate network and on Apple devices at risk.
“Personal devices have permanently and positively changed the workplace, particularly in the ways employees collaborate, work remotely and interact with company data,” said Anders Lofgren, director of Mobility Solutions for Acronis. “BYOD is a huge opportunity for companies, but our research shows troubling signs of negligence in the face of these dangers. However, with policies and solutions that manage the flow of data between multiple devices and environments, companies can practice safe BYOD with confidence.”
To optimize BYOD, protect the bottom line, and avoid data loss and serious compliance issues, organizations should take immediate steps to ensure employees are trained in safe BYOD practices, that personal device and public cloud use are monitored and managed, and that effective data protection solutions are in place to prevent data loss. These are the critical steps to achieving safe BYOD.
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The survey was conducted by the across eight countries during March and April 2013. 4,374 IT practitioners were surveyed in mid to large sized organisations across a variety of industries.
Acronis delivers reliable, easy to use backup and disaster recovery solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments to individuals and businesses in 90 countries worldwide. Acronis- innovative technology enables organizations to reduce risk against the loss of valuable data, control management and storage costs while responding to the always-available, everywhere access demands of users. With proven technology for data migration and disaster recovery for hybrid environments, and secure file-sharing and synchronization for the home and business, Acronis is enabling new levels of data protection and mobile collaboration. For additional information, please visit . Follow Acronis on Twitter: .
Acronis® is a registered trademark of Acronis International GmbH in the United States and/or other countries. Apple® and Mac® are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Meredith L. Eaton
March Communications
Tel: +1 617-960-9877
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