The recent shift to telework has exposed something that has been happening for a while now – employees are accessing sensitive data through their personal smartphones and tablets while they’re outside the protective perimeter of the office. Mobile devices are now the center-piece of many employee’s security and productivity workflow.
According to our survey, 97 percent of security managers say their workforce uses mobile for multi-factor authentication, application access or data access. For many public sector employees who previously had always performed their job in an office, the computer they use is typically a desktop machine and not a laptop. With telework, there has been an increase in the use of tablets by employees that did not have a laptop computer.
Security managers who responded to the survey seem to understand that, while tablets and smartphones boost productivity, they also come with security challenges. 85 percent of the respondents agree that mobile devices for telework increases the risk of cyber threats and 75 percent are more concerned about their mobile security posture today than they were three months ago.
