BYOD brings security challenges.

• Position: INFO SECURITY - Bring-your-own-device

The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend poses serious security challenges for enterprises. A 2012 Trend Micro survey report "Mobile Consumerization Trends & Perceptions" revealed that nearly half of enterprises surveyed that allow employee-owned devices to connect to a company's network have experienced a data breach. Furthermore, 86% of the IT decision makers from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany reported that smartphone data security is their number one concern when consumer devices are connected to corporate networks.

According to an October 13 New York Times article "Bolstering a Phone's Defenses Against Breaches," a handful of technology companies are trying to capitalize on the BYOD trend that people in charge of securing corporate networks say has become their biggest headache. In the past, the author wrote, they could mandate that employees use company-approved BlackBerry smartphones, which came with a tightly controlled network. However, with BlackBerry's future uncertain and an increasing number of employees requesting to use their iPhones, iPads, and Android-powered devices at work, IT managers have been forced to consider alternatives and to deal with those alternatives' security threats.

Data security managers are struggling to keep tabs on sensitive information as employees import data to their personal devices and download mobile apps that have access to corporate assets. Experts and threat researchers warn that these applications have little or no safeguards. According to the article, in the 2013 "Application Security Testing Magic Quadrant"...