New Wisegate Report Reveals How CSOs from Across Industries are Enabling Secure BYOD

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Austin-based start-up Wisegate, the IT expert knowledge service, released a new report that answers the industry’s most complex “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) questions while providing expert insight to help CSOs successfully build policies and effectively manage employee owned devices in the enterprise. In this report, Wisegate shares the latest perspectives of CSO members from across industries who agree that while allowing employees to use their own mobile devices improves job satisfaction and can increase productivity, it also raises serious questions about how to secure these devices when they are no longer completely under IT’s control.

“Consumerization of IT issues are top of mind and Wisegate’s new report is a storehouse of in-the-trenches information from today’s IT security leaders”

In a previous Wisegate report titled, “Preparing for the Top IT Security Threats of 2013,” Wisegate CISO members shared their viewpoints on the top anticipated threats for 2013—and how to prepare for them. The general consensus among members was that while specific threats - like the latest virus or DDoS attacks are important security concerns to address - dealing with the growth of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and the difficulties that arise when employees use personal devices to conduct business, tops the list of concerns.

“The explosion of employee owned devices being used in the enterprise has quickly become a main focus for CSOs,” said Bill Burns, Director of IT Security & Networking and Wisegate Member. “There is a confluence of events taking place: it's quickly becoming more efficient for companies to use third-party cloud applications. And employees demand to be more mobile, bringing their own high-performance devices. The bottom line is there is no single best practice to securing corporate data on these devices — it requires a layered approach, balancing among cost, security, compliance, productivity and corporate culture.”

Wisegate members are some of the most experienced IT and infosecurity executives and managers in the world. Because of their positions and levels of responsibility, Wisegate members are often on the forefront of addressing new issues related to the use of information technology and the protection of enterprise data and intellectual property, like “bring your own device” BYOD challenges.

Wisegate’s most recent report provides an overview of the BYOD issues that must be considered when constructing a set of policies to help mitigate the risks of bringing Smartphones and tablet PCs onto the enterprise network. The report covers the most prevalent concerns of leading CSOs:

The theft, loss or leakage of company data;
Proper storage and transmittal of company data;
The limitations of managing devices, and how far the organization can or should go toward locking-down devices;
Malware and spyware aimed at mobile devices;
How (or even whether) to support a growing number of devices that use a variety of operating systems, applications, firmware and mobile carriers.

To understand the evolution of opinions on BYOD issues that CSOs faced in 2012, Wisegate again posed the following question which was previously asked in 2011: “What is your position on securing mobile/handheld/tablet devices which your workforce uses (especially 'bring your own device')?” In comparison between 2011 and 2012, the percentage of members reporting an “only fully managed” approach to securing devices declined by 10%, while 15% more are using a hybrid approach.

We will only allow fully managed and secured devices to utilize corporate services: 2011: 27% 2012: 17%
We want to enable our workforce to work in whatever way is effective to them: 2011: 24% 2012: 22%
We are moving from a 'device centric' strategy to a 'user centric' strategy and don't think that devices can be fully secured. We focus on securing the sensitive transactions: 2011: 24% 2012: 22%
We utilize a hybrid approach with more secured devices getting more access and less secured/managed getting less access: 2011: 20% 2012: 35%

(note: members were allowed to provide more than one answer)

“Consumerization of IT issues are top of mind and Wisegate’s new report is a storehouse of in-the-trenches information from today’s IT security leaders,” said Sara Gates, Founder and CEO of Wisegate. “By enforcing strict membership guidelines, which exclude vendors from joining, Wisegate is able to provide members with unmatched access to senior-level IT professionals and quality content.”

To request a copy of Wisegate’s report titled “CSO Peers Share Their Latest Strategies for Enabling Secure BYOD: New Strategies help Balance Corporate Security with Employee-Owned Devices”, please visit: http://www.wisegateit.com/resources/downloads-byod-strategies-report.

If you are interested in joining Wisegate, please visit http://www.wisegateit.com/request-invite/ and request an invitation to join.

About Wisegate

Wisegate (wisegateit.com) is an IT expert community and information service for senior IT professionals, providing high quality research and intelligence from the best source available – the collective knowledge of IT leaders from across the industry. With online Q&A, detailed product reviews, live roundtables, and published peer-based research, Wisegate offers a practical and unbiased information source built on the real-world experience of veteran IT professionals.