Organisations unprepared for iPhone security threat – survey

London, July 2009 (Aspectus PR) – A new survey sponsored by DeviceLock, Inc., reveals that companies are failing to appreciate the risks attached to iPhone use among employees*. Timed to coincide with the introduction of DeviceLock’s endpoint security support for iPhone devices, the survey quizzed senior IT decision-makers in medium-to-large firms on their attitude towards the security threat posed by the iPhone.

The survey revealed that while 65 per cent of IT decision makers recognised that unauthorised users could access valuable company data through the iPhone, 64 per cent said they had not taken any steps to secure company data against this threat.

Given the high number of companies with inadequate protection against data breaches via an iPhone, the survey also revealed that 40 per cent of businesses knowingly allow staff to download company data onto removable devices without any security provision.

“We know that the consumerisation of corporate IT is an increasing problem for IT departments. The amount of removable and mobile memory-enabled devices that employees have on their person at any one time is now quite considerable - be it a USB stick or an iPhone. Therefore, we were very surprised to see that most companies were not prepared for this threat,” said Sacha Chahrvin, managing director at DeviceLock UK. “DeviceLock 6.4.1, which is now in beta, will provide a secure way for companies to have more control over how employees use their iPhones as a business tool.”

This DeviceLock version has added granular access control, auditing and shadowing capabilities for the local synchronizations of iPhone devices connected to employee computers. Now companies can set permissions for different data types (media, contacts, files, etc.) transferring to/from iPhone. It also enables auditing and shadowing for objects copying from the PCs to iPhones.

Since its inception in 1996 as SmartLine, DeviceLock, Inc. has been providing endpoint device control software solutions to businesses of all sizes and industries. Protecting more than 4 million computers in over 58,000 organizations worldwide, DeviceLock has a vast range of corporate customers including financial institutions, state and federal government agencies, classified military networks, healthcare providers, telecommunications companies, and educational institutions. DeviceLock, Inc. is an international organization with offices in San Ramon (California, US), London (UK), Ratingen (Germany), Moscow (Russia) and Milan (Italy). For more information, visit DeviceLock web-site at www.devicelock.com.

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