McAfee and Carnegie Mellon Report Finds Serious Disconnect Between Businesses and Mobile Users


McAfee and Carnegie Mellon Report Finds Serious Disconnect Between
Businesses and Mobile Users

Risky Behaviours and Weak Security Postures are Commonplace in Mobile
Security

Santa Clara, Calif., and Pittsburgh - May 24, 2011 - McAfee today
released “Mobility and Security: Dazzling Opportunities, Profound
Challenges,” a global report focused on the consumerization of IT and
its impact on security. The report looks at mobility from two
perspectives - that of the company’s senior IT professional and the
general end users of mobile devices in the workplace.  Researchers found
that while an increasing number of consumers use mobile devices for both
business and personal activities, large numbers are not familiar with
their employer’s corporate policy on the use of mobile devices.

“Devices are no longer just consumer devices or business devices.
They are both,” said Richard Power, a CyLab Distinguished Fellow at
Carnegie Mellon University, the primary author of the report.
“Devices are more than extensions of the computing structure, they
are extensions of the user. The way users interact with their personal
data mirrors the way they want to interact with corporate data.”

Reliance on mobile devices is already significant and accelerating
rapidly. In the survey, almost half of organizations are very reliant on
mobile devices. Almost seven in 10 organizations are more reliant on
mobile devices than they were 12 months ago.  IT is becoming
increasingly consumerized and businesses now operate in a heterogeneous
mobile environment where BlackBerrys are no longer the standard. The
survey found that 63 per cent of devices on the network are also used
for personal activities.

Key Report Findings:
●       Lost and stolen mobile devices are seen as the greatest security
concern for IT professionals and end-users - Four in 10 organizations
have had mobile devices lost or stolen and half of lost/stolen devices
contain business critical data. More than a third of mobile device
losses have had a financial impact on the organization and two-thirds of
companies that had mobile devices lost/stolen have increased their
device security after this loss.
●       Risky behaviours and weak security postures are commonplace -
Although the need for mitigating mobile security risks and threats is
acknowledged, fewer than half of device users back up their mobile data
more frequently than on a weekly basis. Around half of device users keep
passwords, pin codes or credit card details on their mobile devices. One
in three users keeps sensitive work-related information on their mobile
devices.
●       There is a serious disconnect between the policy and reality -
95 per cent of organizations have policies in place in regard to mobile
devices, however, only one in three employees are very aware of their
company’s mobile security policies

“Data loss remains a huge problem for both consumers and businesses,"
said Todd Gebhart, executive vice president and general manager,
consumer, small business and mobile, McAfee. “Consumers need tools to
protect their personal information and businesses need a way to protect
their valuable intellectual property.  It's far too easy to leave a
mobile device in a cab, or at the airport.  This study shows that there
is a lot of room for improvement in terms of education and putting the
right tools in place to ensure mobile security.”

       “Mobility and Security: Dazzling Opportunities, Profound
Challenges,” is based on a survey of more than 1500 information
technology and end user respondents from 14 countries and was
commissioned by McAfee and produced by Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab.  A
full copy of the report is available for download at
http://www.mcafee.com/mobilesecurityreport.

About the report:
In collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, McAfee took a hard
look at the topic of mobile security and the consumerization of IT. The
online surveys were administered by international research firm Vanson
Bourne. More than 1500 respondents from 14 countries, including
Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico,
the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S.,
participated in the survey. The participants were split between two
surveys targeted towards general end-users of mobile devices and senior
IT decision makers in companies with 100 or more employees.

About McAfee:
McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC),
is the world's largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee
delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure
systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users
to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more
securely. Backed by its unrivaled Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee
creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the
public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance
with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify
vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security.
McAfee is relentlessly focused on constantly finding new ways to keep
our customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com

McAfee Canada is headquartered in Markham, Ontario, with regional
offices across Canada. The company's Consumer Software Research and
Development facility in based in Waterloo, Ontario.

About CyLab:
CyLab is one of the largest university-based cybersecurity education
and research centers in the U.S. CyLab is multi-disciplinary and
university-wide, involving six colleges from Carnegie Mellon, 50 plus
faculty and over 130 graduate students. CyLab is located in the
Collaborative Innovation Center and is supported by both public and
private funding, predominantly government research funds and the support
of our partners. Our goal is to build mutually-beneficial public-private
partnerships to develop new technologies for measurable, available,
secure, trustworthy, and sustainable computing and communications
systems and to educate individuals at all levels.
http://www.cylab.cmu.edu/

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For more information please contact:
Jennifer Rideout / Adam Pletsch
StrategicAmpersand Inc. (for McAfee Canada)
jennifer@stratamp.com
adam@stratamp.com
 (416) 961-5595

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