A significant percentage of employees worldwide are afraid of losing the personal data on their BYOD devices that they use for work purposes.
A significant percentage of employees worldwide are afraid of losing the personal data on their BYOD devices that they use for work purposes: 45% of European workers, compared with 40% in the Middle East and two thirds of American employees.
This is one of the findings in a global study of 3,000 employees, Employees Tell the Truth About Your Company’s Data, released by Aruba Networks.
This fear appears to be encouraging some staff: 15% in Europe and in the Middle East and 17% in the US, to keep the fact that they use a personal device for work from their employer.
Perhaps even more worrying than this is the fact that numbers of employees would not tell their employer if their device had been compromised: 13% in Europe, over a quarter of Middle Eastern employees, and 11% in the US.
Such fears may be driven by the negative perceptions of IT departments, which were also revealed in the study. One quarter of European employees, 31% in the Middle East, and almost half of American employees worry about the IT department having access to their private data. In addition, surprisingly large numbers believe that the IT department would tamper with their private data: 18% in Europe and 26% in the Middle East
“The research from both sides of the Atlantic shows that employees and IT departments are gambling with data security, but chance isn’t the only factor. In short, employees resent the power their employers now wield over their personal data, but are equally unconcerned about keeping company data safe,” Ben Gibson, chief marketing officer with Aruba, said.
“It is a reality across the world and businesses need to adopt solutions that give their employees greater privacy for their personal data as well as exert greater network controls to ensure that sensitive information is not leaked,” Gibson added.
