Author: Jacob Chacko, Business Lead – SMB &
Commercial, Middle East & Turkey at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Company
Intro
The finance sector has a data security problem, but it
goes beyond external threats from hackers — this is a threat from within. Jacob
from Aruba explains what this threat is and how your business can combat it.
The finance sector is
in agreement: there’s a major global threat to the success of the banking and
finance industry, one that ignores boom and bust cycles, doesn’t care about
stock market fluctuations and wouldn't bat an eyelid if interest rates suddenly
jumped ten points.
But this threat is also
an essential and highly successful ingredient in the revival of the finance
industry’s fortunes.
What is this
unwitting, non-malicious threat? It’s your mobile-tech carrying employees
themselves.
Which ones?
You’ve heard of
Generation X (you might be one yourself), Generation Y (you probably employ a
few of these), and Generation Z (the Internet’s digital natives), but there’s
another category to add to the list: #GenMobile.
Brought up in a world
where mobile devices are an integral part of everyday life, #GenMobile is
defined by a productivity-focused attitude that finds it as easy to share a
status update as it does a password or mobile device with a colleague. And this
is why your #GenMobile workforce is both an asset and a threat to your business.
To identify the true
nature of this new type of employee, Aruba Networks surveyed 11,500 workers
in 23 countries,
asking them detailed questions about their work, their approach to data and
their take on corporate and personal security in a technological landscape
dominated by mobile devices.
Who are they?
#GenMobile are
generally young (18-35), highly effective and mostly indifferent to computer
security. Given the finance sector’s risk-averse take on data security, you’d
be forgiven for dismissing the idea of a ‘threat’ from your own highly trained
staff. But with an alarming four out of every ten finance organisations
admitting to having lost data through the misuse of a mobile device (25% higher
than other industries), you might want to read on .
Ok, so what are they doing?
#GenMobile, as the
name suggests, are 100% comfortable with mobility, flexible working and using
multiple mobile devices to get the job done. #GenMobile will stop at nothing to
get their work tasks completed, and 51% say that mobile technologies enable
them to be more productive and engaged at work.
This fervent need to
get things done means 56% will disobey their managers to get complete a task —
while three-quarters are happy to take IT issues into their own hands without
getting in touch with their IT department.
Sharing is also a
risk factor, as 60% of respondents reported being happy to let others use their
work mobile devices at least once a month, while a fifth don’t have passwords
on their mobile devices at all, in part to make sharing easier. You won’t be
surprised that security only limps into the top five of office tech concerns
for #GenMobile.
Five tips to turn a threat into a safe bet
So what do you do? Lockdown
all mobile devices? Implement a highly restrictive password policy? Don’t throw
the baby out with the bathwater just yet — this new generation is already
contributing to the overall health of the finance sector. They bring
big-thinking creativity, better collaboration and new ways of doing things;
priceless in an era when consumer behaviour is changing at an incredible speed.
Yet the impact of a security breach is both seismic and often irreparable.
Here’s five ways to
make sure your organisation is prepared for #GenMobile:
1)
Over a third of businesses don’t have
a basic mobile security policy in place. Make sure you have a policy covering
roles, devices, locations and other contextual attributes.
2)
Create enforcement rules that extend
from applications to devices to the network.
3)
Make sure your security measures and
policies map back to your organisation’s business objectives.
4)
Training is vital: all staff should
have needs-assessed training to help them understand why policies are in place
and how they can help.
5)
Take heed of feedback — it may improve
your IT workflows and performance.