By IDG Enterprise

The annual lost BYOD holiday nightmare is almost upon us

Follow Me
November 15, 2012 5:12 PM

Security is arguably the top concern of IT professionals when it comes to employees using their own devices for work.

Which is why the holiday shopping season can be extra-stressful for IT pros tasked with locking down enterprise data assets -- it turns out that workers also are shoppers, and they lose stuff!

A new survey by data-protection vendor Credant Technologies shows that 67% of mobile devices lost at major shopping malls over the past year went missing in the period from Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) through December.

Google Has An Opportunity To Get Serious About Android Security
CITE Goes Live! Register for the CITE Conference & Expo, June 2-4, in San Francisco.

And we're talking a lot of mobile devices -- 5,754 devices total in 15 of the largest 44 malls in the U.S. According to Credant, that's double the number of lost devices from the same survey last year.

Using some napkin math, nearly 12,000 mobile devices were lost in the 44 largest malls during last year's holiday season. And that's just in malls. (I'm looking forward to the data on bars.)

Obviously IT pros can't accompany their work colleagues on holiday shopping expeditions, but now would be a good time for a reminder memo/email/text/tweet about the importance of protecting the organization's data residing on (or accessible via) their personal devices.

That memo might include:

1. A tribute to the benefits of shopping online (where the odds of a device getting lost drop dramatically).

2. A plea to never, ever put down a smartphone or tablet on a table in a mall food court. (According to the survey, 40% of mobile devices left behind in malls were found in food courts.)

3. A reminder of the importance of safeguarding your personal device with a long, unique password.

4. A reminder of the importance of encrypting data. Yes, it's a hassle, you can write to employees, but if they want the convenience of using their own devices for work, they should be willing to take extra steps to secure work-related data.

5. A reminder that if they lose their personal devices, you'll zap it with the "remote kill" service you (should have) installed on the phone.

Credant also reports that a shopper at one mall left behind a chandelier. But that's probably not an IT concern.

 

Latest Stories
May 23, 2013 4:54 PM

Windows 8 users are mostly sticking with the traditional desktop

Majority of Windows 8 PC owners launch less than one app a day

May 23, 2013 2:16 PM

Arduino Yún: A bridge between do-it-yourself and the Internet of Things

The open-source Arduino platform has helped tinkers make robots and controllers. At the Maker Faire last weekend, Arduino leader Massimo Banzi unveiled a new effort to help connect Arduino devices to the Internet.

May 23, 2013 12:58 PM

Here's how the new Kinect could make Windows better

Microsoft said its updated Kinect will be available for use with Windows some time next year.

May 23, 2013 12:42 PM

Sure, listen to your customers -- but don't expect them to have all the answers

Social channels give companies unprecedented access to customers, and they can help you build better products that meet their needs. But sometimes it's your job to innovate and come up with products your customers never imagined needing.

May 23, 2013 11:34 AM

Lenovo is becoming a serious smartphone player

IDGNS

Lenovo's smartphone shipments grew more than 200 percent year-over-year in the quarter, and it aims to sell more than 50 million phones this year.

May 23, 2013 10:04 AM

Here's what Steve Jobs thought of CIOs

IDGNS

Apple's hands-off attitude toward enterprise IT stems from the thoughts of its founder, according to an anecdote told by Salesforce's JP Rangaswami.

FOLLOW US
Get CITEworld updates via email, RSS or social media