In addition to grappling with the increasing sophistication, frequency and scale of cybercrime, today’s CIOs and CISOs are being confronted with an increasingly porous IT security perimeter. Among other things, this is driven by the adoption of cloud computing initiatives and the exploding usage of consumer-purchased devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops which are entering the workplace as a result of the Consumerization of IT. We call this the challenge of “securing the borderless enterprise.”
In our recent Consumerization of IT study sponsored by Unisys and conducted by IDC for the second year running, we found that IT was surprisingly doing less than last year to secure mobile devices. For example, while 83% of IT managers cited security concerns as barriers to adoption for support of consumer devices, we found that use of complex passwords to secure these devices had declined from 57% in 2010 to 48% in 2011. You can check out many more security-related datapoints in our study here.
Yet beyond the urgent need to develop strategies and solutions to secure the new wave of smart mobile devices, and to secure areas such as cloud computing initiatives, business leaders can also look at this as an opportunity to get in front of their competitors and drive innovation around these disruptive trends for revenue growth, cost savings and business agility.
The premise is simple. Securing mobile devices and users to address this consumerization of IT effect will have the added benefit of allowing these disruptive technologies to be adopted more rapidly and successfully within your organization. This may help to provide you with a first mover or early mover advantage while your peers take longer to adopt and overcome the clear security challenges these disruptive technologies present. In addition to its traditional role for risk management, robust CyberSecurity can also be a strategic enabler for business innovation. How far along are you with your cloud security initiatives and your mobile device security initiatives? Have your CyberSecurity initiatives opened any doors for innovation within your business? We’d love to hear from you!
