A recent survey by Acronis, a data backup and disaster recovery company, found that 87 per cent of public sector organisations have no formal strategies to deal with the bring your own device (BYOD) trend. 11 per cent of the local authorities surveyed did have a BYOD strategy but none of the central government departments had a BYOD plan.
Acronis acquired the data on BYOD planning through Freedom of Information Act requests to 48 central and local government organisations, 41 of which complied with the request.
The survey also found that around 25 per cent of the organisations had detected unauthorised devices attached to their networks between 2011 and 2012, while a similar number had no easy way of even detecting whether unauthorised devices had been connected. Furthermore, only around 30 per cent of the organisations had plans to review the case for a BYOD strategy.
Alan Laing, vice president for EMEA, Acronis, said, “Confidential content is regularly leaving the network on tablets, smartphones or via public cloud-based services. The rise of BYOD, the use of corporate file-sharing beyond firewalls and the management of hybrid environments is no longer only a headache for IT management; it’s a serious regulatory issue, particularly for the public sector.
“Public sector organisations should review their current practices for managing and protecting traditional devices and then extend them to protect their employees’ mobile devices.”
