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The explosive growth in the unregulated use of personal devices in the workplace is generating what many believe is an unstoppable momentum that will force employers to develop a mobile experience within their organisations that embraces data across any and every device. That's certainly the view of market research company Gartner, which predicts that as many as 50% of employers will require workers to use their own devices for work by 2017.

While the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon promises to boost employee productivity and collaboration, it also brings significant security issues that need to be addressed. The use of personal devices in businesses is an ad hoc development rather than an official strategy fuelled by the desire of employees to use their chosen device with the most effective apps they can find to make their jobs easier. Sadly, this does not always match the business and security requirements of their employers, especially if employees store company sensitive data on their personal devices.

EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITY
The responsibility rests with employers to ensure that the BYOD surge becomes a policy with an accompanying set of best practices that employees need to be educated about and adhere to. Right now, the indications are that few are shouldering that responsibility. The Acronis 2013 Data Protection Trends Research, conducted by the Ponemon Institute, reported that a majority of companies did not have security policies in place for personal devices. The research also revealed that 77% of employees worldwide had received no education concerning the risks associated with BYOD.

Those findings suggest employers are going to have to make a big effort if they hope to have the proper environment in place for BYOD to flourish while maintaining enterprise security standards.

In the meantime, they also need to get to grips with the rise of personal device use which is already happening within their organisations. The reality is that employees are using personal devices, such as smartphones and tablets, in their work environment - and the numbers are increasing.

THE TIDE CANNOT BE TURNED
Some businesses are seeking to stem the tide by imposing a blanket ban on workers using their own devices accessing the company network. For those in areas where regulatory considerations are significant, such as finance or healthcare, this is an attractive option. But while this approach might work in the short term, it's not a viable solution. There are security concerns, for example, arising from employees choosing to ignore company regulations and use unauthorised solutions from third parties with their personal devices. Restricting personal device use could also drive employees away, especially in the light of recent research from VMware, which found 39% of employees would consider leaving their organisation if they weren't allowed to use their mobile device for work.

The onus, therefore, is on organisations to take steps to get to grips with BYOD by working to incorporate personal devices into their networks in a way that does not compromise existing security standards. Only then will they be able to give employees the improved productivity they seek while ensuring company data is protected.

Protecting data means that the security policy needs to be delivered consistently and universally across the organisation to ensure a safer BYOD strategy. Security practices need to apply equally to all. Too often, businesses take grave risks by allowing exceptions for high-level executives even though those individuals have access to the most sensitive information with the organisation. In a BYOD environment, those risks are only likely to exacerbated.

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