Healthcare Technology Featured Article

January 27, 2014

DataMotion Survey Unveils IT Communication Problems Relating to BYOD Practices and Policies


A new survey on the corporate email and file transfer habits of employees shows some interesting findings about the way IT management and other employees communicate about “bring your own device” (BYOD) habits and policies. The second annual survey, from email encryption provider DataMotion, unveils a serious disconnect between IT management and other staff when it comes to relaying security and compliance policies relating to BYOD.

According to DataMotion, IT management are less than effective when communicating information on corporate policies, including those pertaining to the use of consumer oriented file transfer tools and the use of corporate email on personal mobile devices. The company’s survey also found that a large percentage of IT management take compliance risks and will turn off essential capabilities because of technology issues. The concept of BYOD and how IT departments are attempting to take control of the situation is going to be a major topic at the “BYOD 2.0: What Will Employees Think of Next?” conference at this year’s ITEXPO, taking place this week in Miami, Florida.

That’s a disturbing piece of information since companies are under increasing risk of penalty for failure to comply with government and market mandated standards relating to their data. The survey, which queried more than 400 IT and decision makers in the U.S. and Canada, focused particularly on the government, financial services and healthcare sectors.

"It's good to see improvements in security and compliance since last year, but serious problems remain and new ones have cropped up," said Bob Janacek CTO of DataMotion, regarding the survey results. "There's always a demand for new tools such as email on mobile devices - companies and workers look for better ways to get the job done. The challenge is to provide encryption and filtering tools that are easy for people to use, and dependable so they don't get disabled.”

Failure to successfully implement a BYOD program that adequately protects sensitive company data while also safeguarding workers’ rights and privacy could lead to disastrous results. According to DataMotion, about one out of three respondents believe their employees do not understand policies regarding compliance and security for transferring files electronically. And while 51.6 percent of IT management said consumer file transfer services are forbidden at their companies, only 24 percent of non-IT workers believed that to be the case, pointing to a serious communication disconnect.

"IT has to keep pace, which is why the communications disconnect with non-IT employees, as well as the risks being taken, require immediate attention,” added Janacek. “Furthermore, regulatory developments in many industries have expanded; meaning companies not previously covered, might be now. Failing to comply can be devastating." 




Edited by Cassandra Tucker
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