- BYOD Now Widespread and Security Teams Struggling to Manage It, Report Claims
- Edge devices remain exposed as research shows 40% are unmanaged across enterprises
- Zero Trust adoption lags as employees continue to use personal devices despite company policies
Bring your own device (BYOD) is becoming the rule rather than the exception in the workplace, new research from Ivanti claims.
The company found that personal phones, laptops and hotspots are increasingly being used for work tasks, often outside the control of IT departments.
The study found that almost half (44%) of workers had used their personal phone for work, while 37% had used it as a hotspot and 32% had used their own computer.
BYOD regardless of policy
Three in four IT workers said bringing their own device was common, despite only 52% of organizations officially allowing it.
When policies prohibit it, 78% of employees do it anyway.
This lack of oversight has left companies potentially vulnerable. Microsoft data shows that more than 90% of ransomware incidents start with an unmanaged device.
Ivanti research agrees with this: 38% of IT professionals admit that they don’t have enough data about the devices on their networks.
Peripheral devices, from smart cameras to remote sensors, further increase exposure.
According to the report, around 40% of these devices remain unmanaged.
“To protect corporate networks against edge device vulnerabilities, organizations should keep edge devices updated to the latest version and push security validation to the user endpoint,” said Mike Riemer, senior vice president of the network security group and field CISO at Ivanti.
Zero trust models are also falling behind adoption expectations.
79% of IT professionals say access controls are more important when staff work remotely, but only 34% of companies use zero trust network access and only 30% use privileged access management.
Daniel Spicer, CSO at Ivanti, said: “IT and security leaders should focus on inventorying and managing all IT assets. This means ensuring that all existing devices can be discovered, enforcing a clear BYOD policy, and ensuring that the BYOD policy includes the ability to manage a device that was not purchased by the company itself.”
The report concludes that traditional perimeters are no longer effective and that companies need to extend management to all devices, wherever they are, and make use of identity-based access controls.
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