Business security threatened by personal mobile phones

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Businesses are being left open to security breaches as employees use personal mobile phones for work.

So claims a new report released today that shows just under a third (28 per cent) of enterprises have fallen victim to security breaches because employees used unauthorised devices in the workplace.

The report - by market research firm Vanson Bourne and sponsored by Good Technology - surveyed decision makers in 300 IT firms across the UK and US about the use of mobile devices in their companies.

The survey showed 80 per cent of employees asked to use their own devices in the past six to 12 months, but only 44 per cent of managers were happy for them to do so, as long as they could be assured of security and configuration.

Philippe Winthrop, research director of Strategy Analytics, said in a statement: "Enterprises have been reluctant to embrace the newest mobile devices because of concerns about security, not to mention the increased management burdens that the new devices would place on already strapped IT departments."

The iPhone was the most likely handset to be used, with 82 per cent of respondents getting requests for iPhone support in their company. There were also requests for Palm Pre, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian device support.

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