CIOs Worry About Mobile Security But Users Don't

With more workers bringing their favorite smartphones to the office, CIOs are concerned about mobile data security and how employee devices are managed, according to a recent research study.

CIOs from large organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom were surveyed about their mobile security concerns in a mobile security report from Mformation Technologies. Released on Mar. 8, the report highlights the challenges facing CIOs trying to figure out which mobile devices are connecting to the network and what information they have access to, the company said.

About 76 percent of surveyed CIOs said employee-owned mobile devices are causing security headaches, and 78 percent didn't know what mobile devices were connecting to the corporate network, the Mformation study found. Even more worrying, 77 percent of enterprises have no idea what data is on those employee devices that are connecting to the network, according to the report.

"Enterprise mobility may well be a business imperative, but it remains a massive risk," said Todd DeLaughter, CEO of Mformation.

IT departments aren't struggling with just employee-owned mobile devices, as only one out of three surveyed CIOs said they could track data on company-issued devices, the survey found. Only 23 percent knew what corporate data was on all mobile devices, regardless of who owned the device, in real-time, according to the survey.