Harder to track IT staff activity, says study

A new study has revealed that the majority (94%) of professionals in the IT sector have third party applications installed on a mobile device, making it more difficult for  IT to monitor.

The Centrify Corporation poll, which took place at Infosecurity Europe, also found that 82% of those who responded use as many as 10 applications.

Apps are now the heart and soul of commercial IT and are considered crucial to staff, both in the workplace and on location. Restricting access isn’t realistic but businesses are potentially risking seeing identities become separated, which means that IT has a more difficult task to monitor, says Centrify EMEA Director Darren Gross.

The study further showed that seven per cent of the 169 who took part don’t feel that they are responsible in protecting corporate information stored on their mobile device. In spite of a number of warnings regarding the risks associated with Wi-Fi networks, 52 per cent admitted to accessing important company information through unsecure networks when at an airport, coffee shop, and other such locations.

Gross said:

“Identity and access can often be overlooked, but unless enterprises can find a unified way to securely identify individuals, they risk their business coming to a shuddering halt.”

It is important for employers to ensure that their staff are aware of the risks they are taking on the behalf of their company, and the responsibility they hold. It may be a case that companies need to post cyber security jobs to bolster not only knowledge of tracking facilities, but also methods of restricting information access to a need-to-know basis.