Central Office IT Neglects Mobile Security: CDW Survey

Mobile security is very much a moving target -- one that too many businesses are either missing or not aiming at altogether, according to a newly released study.The CDW User-Proof IT Security Report (registration required for free download) surveyed just over 300 IT pros and found, among other things:

Nearly 70 percent of businesses have no mobile device security policy in place.

Top IT security concern is employee use of the Internet, particularly inappropriate content access, yet close to 60 percent of the companies have no content filters (much less blockers) in place.

Outside software being loaded onto company equipment and networks gives security a pain, too, but only four in ten have network auditware in place.

A couple of things make the CDW survey worth your time:

First, close to 40 percent of the respondents represented companies with fewer than 500 employees: that's a higher percentage of realworld midsize business respondents than is typical of security surveys lately.

Second, the survey was restricted to IT professionals whose companies actually had a written security policy in place --

This is a) precisely the sort of filter that makes surveys both more specific and more valuable and b) one of those quantifiable measures of the disconnect between your security policies and procedures (100 percent of the respondents have written policies in place but 70 percent of those policies don't address mobile issues at all? Come on!) and the very insecure realities your employees and co-workers are creating.

Good reading that's worth thinking about. And acting on.