Research from Avast has found that employees in almost a third of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in the UK are connecting to the corporate network using personal devices that do not have any security controls in place.
Since the pandemic began, SMB leaders have had to quickly adapt to changing working behaviours. Whether teams are fully remote or hybrid, trying to ensure employees have the right technology in place hasn’t been straightforward.
Of the decision-makers surveyed in this study, 66 percent stated they had not provided employees with their own dedicated work computers, whilst 19 per cent encouraged employees working from home to use personal devices due to difficulties providing company hardware to them. A further 22 percent provided corporate software to employees to use in conjunction with personal devices due to these difficulties.
Since working from home was introduced at the start of the pandemic, only 23 percent of decision-makers said their company has specifically asked employees not to use personal devices for work activities. A further 15 percent of decision-makers have noticed unidentified or unauthorised devices on the corporate network that they believe are employees’ personal devices.
When SMB employees were asked directly about the personal devices they use for work, 27 percent stated they had connected a personal computer to a company network and 15 percent had connected a personal smartphone. Of those who did this, eight percent didn’t get permission before connecting a personal computer and 13 percent didn’t get permission before connecting a personal smartphone.
Avast VP Worldwide Channel & Alliances Marc Botham said: “IT teams have understandably done their best to make this happen, but as we begin to resume some form of normality, it’s crucial that the security of personal devices accessing the corporate network is treated with as much importance as the security of corporate devices.”
The research was conducted in July 2021 by Dynata. It surveyed 500 IT Decision Makers in the UK and 500 in Germany, as well as 1000 SMB workers in the UK and 1000 in Germany.
