Kaspersky Lab: Threats related to the BYOD (bring-your-own-device) trend are still often overlooked by businesses. According to research , many small business owners believe that BYOD is not a threat to their business and show no interest in making any effort to secure mobile devices, while employees believe that security is solely the responsibility of the business. 
The survey found that two-thirds (62%) of business owners and employees worldwide now use their personal mobile devices at work. As a result, BYOD is no longer a growing trend, but a widely accepted business practice, affecting companies of all sizes – from very large organizations (5,000 employees or more) to very small businesses (with fewer than 25 employees).
However, attitudes towards protecting data on mobile devices are far from ideal. Kaspersky Lab ’s survey of consumer security risks found that six in ten (60%) are concerned about the threat of surveillance and information theft via mobile devices, but are not actively protecting themselves and rely on their employers to do so.
At the same time, employees often store work files on their own laptops, tablets, and smartphones. They also keep work-related emails on these devices, and sometimes even store passwords for logging into company email accounts and accessing corporate networks or VPNs.
As for employers and small business owners, one-third (32%) see no risk whatsoever in using personal mobile devices at work. The risk of data being intercepted from an employee's mobile device is not a major concern for them, resulting in them not paying much attention to this area.
However, representatives of larger businesses are more concerned about the loss of their employees' mobile devices, with 58% fearing that the theft or loss of a device could harm the company.
This attitude, both on the part of device owners and their employers, can create a serious vulnerability for a corporate network. This weakness can potentially be exploited by cybercriminals, as well as unscrupulous competitors. There is always the possibility of financial loss (e.g. from the loss of customer base), even if the general feeling is that a lost mobile device cannot cause damage to the company. Protecting the mobile environment, therefore, is now a critical part of companies' security policies.
"It is increasingly rare to meet a professional who does not use their own mobile device for work purposes. Laptops, tablets or smartphones allow a large part of a company's work to be carried out remotely, from anywhere. However, losing important corporate data through personal devices is quite common. Thus, negligent attitude towards the security of mobile devices could pose a serious risk to a company's work. Therefore, it is important to use a reliable and specialized solution that meets all modern requirements and market trends, as well as to train employees about possible threats and the actions they should take if they encounter them," said Konstantin Voronkov, Head of Endpoint Product Management at Kaspersky Lab.
Among the first steps that businesses should plan to safely implement the BYOD model is to evaluate the use of personal devices at work and select a digital security solution that will offer effective protection against malware and digital threats, while also allowing for easy management through a single console.
Such solutions are, for example, Kaspersky Security for Mobile or Kaspersky Small Office Security. Kaspersky Small Office Security provides comprehensive protection, including strong security for mobile devices, especially for small businesses that do not have much time or sufficient resources to manage IT systems.
An important step should also be to train staff on issues such as dealing with social engineering tricks (e.g. fake phone calls from banks or the police, where users are asked to report details from recently received SMS – which can be one-time passwords for a bank account, Apple or Google ID), checking QR codes (which can lead to phishing websites, if, for example, a fake image is pasted over a real QR code) and reporting the loss of a mobile device as soon as possible.
A company should also have extensive scenarios in place for excluding personal devices from the corporate network if they are lost or stolen, or if an employee leaves the company. In these cases, a process should be developed in advance to remove confidential corporate data from these devices, as well as to block their access to the corporate network.
More information about Kaspersky Small Office Security is available on the company's website
More information about Kaspersky Security for Mobile is available at the link.
