According to Bitglass’ research, one in four organisations do not have multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods in place to secure BYOD – a well-known enterprise security gap. Simply using passwords – i.e. single-factor authentication – to control user access to corporate data, has resulted in several high-profile data breaches in recent months, including Zomato, Deloitte and Microsoft.
“Enterprises often misjudge the effectiveness of traditional security solutions, many of which are readily bypassed,” said Rich Campagna, CEO, Bitglass. “The BYOD boom exposes organisations to risks that can only be mitigated with data-centric solutions that secure access.”
The report also highlights the top cloud security priorities for organisations. BYOD security and access are clear concerns, as external sharing (45 percent), malware protection (40 percent) and unmanaged BYO device access (40 percent) came out on top. In order to meet these needs, organisations will need to adopt new security solutions. While three quarters of respondents already have encryption and on-premise firewalls in place to protect corporate data, more are starting to deploy Secure Web Gateways and cloud access security brokers.
Bitglass’ survey also found that some organisations still have concerns with the newest user authentication methods. The report found that 61 percent of IT and security professionals surveyed have reservations about Apple’s Face ID technology as a viable method of BYOD authentication. While, traditional authentication methods like passcodes, PIN codes, and fingerprint recognition are familiar and trusted by enterprises, facial recognition technologies remain unproven.
Highlights of the survey include:
- 28 percent of respondents have no multi-factor authentication methods in place for BYOD access
- For those using MFA for BYOD, third party applications (42 percent) and SMS tokens (34 percent) are the most popular methods used
- External sharing is rated the leading cloud security concern for professionals surveyed (45 percent)
- Also listed as top security concerns are malware protection (40 percent) and unmanaged device access (40 percent)
- 61 percent of respondents have reservations about Apple’s Face ID technology
- Top Apple Face ID concerns include accuracy of face detection (40 percent), prevention of unauthorised access (30 percent) and speed of face detection (24 percent)
