It will probably come as no surprise to discover the use of personal devices at work carries significant network security risks. Chances are your company may even have a BYOD policy in place that permits the use of personal devices in the workplace.
In an effort to quantify the level of risk posed by the use of these devices, a survey was conducted by Virgin Business Media. Respondents were asked questions about BYOD and the potential pitfalls. Network security was one of the main worries, and alarmingly, 51% of respondents revealed they had already suffered a security breach as a result of personal devices being used to access corporate networks.
The number of devices connecting to the network has an impact on the level of risk faced. The more devices that are allowed to connect, the greater the risk of one of those devices being used by a hacker to launch an attack on the network. Small to medium sized businesses tended to suffer fewer breaches as a result. The survey suggests 25% fewer.
These figures should not be taken to mean that small businesses are unlikely to suffer a cyberattack or experience a security breach. The risk from mobile devices will be reduced, but cybercriminals are now attacking small businesses with increasing regularity. Small to medium sized businesses may not store such large volumes of data, and they may not be as valuable to criminals, but the security defenses used to protect networks are much easier to circumvent. SMEs also tend not to employ as highly skilled IT security staff as the likes of IBM, Facebook and Google.
Take a Proactive Approach to Internet and Email Security
Many small to medium sized enterprises only implement robust security controls after they have suffered a major security breach. Many CEOs believe that they will not be targeted by criminals and do not require particularly sophisticated defenses. Unfortunately, many attacks are random, so SMEs actually face the same threats as larger corporations. They may not be targeted by teams of foreign government-backed hackers, but they are at risk of attack by other hackers and Internet criminals.
The FBI and National White Collar Crime Center formed the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) as a single point of contact for victims of internet crime. IC3 receives reports from businesses and individuals who have become victims of online criminals. In 2011, IC3 received over 400,000 separate complaints from small to medium sized companies that had become victims of online criminal activity. The threat of attack is actually very real.
Given the high risk and the increase in internet crime, business owners need to face the facts. It is no good burying your head in the sand and hoping that it will never happen. It is time to implement security defenses to ensure that it doesn’t.
You may not want to introduce BYOD and have to deal with the risks, but if you do want to leverage the benefits of personal mobile devices and want to enjoy the increase in efficiency and productivity that BYOD promises, you will have to make sure appropriate security measures are installed. Otherwise you could be making your network a lot easier to breach.