Businesses are prioritising blocking the use of social media on electronic devices over data security, a new study has found.
Office workers across Europe were surveyed by Trend Micro and it emerged that while 72 per cent of firms have policies on internet security, only 25 per cent of staff take notice of them.
As mobile working becomes more of a norm, personal devices are being widely used and in excess of three-quarters of companies reported allowing this.
But with 83 per cent letting staff access their emails from mobile devices they may be laying themselves open to attack.
Cesare Garlati, director of consumerisation at Trend Micro, said: “Companies need to wise up to the different threat levels of an employee wasting time on social media sites versus an employee losing an entire new business pipeline, or exposing the soft underbelly of the organisation’s business systems, by leaving their mobile device in a pub or on a train.”
Employee efficiency is important, but it has been predicted that data security will be a key issue in 2012 and companies must make sure that they are not leaving themselves wide open.
In many offices it is unclear who is responsible for making sure that personal devices are secure and this can lead to the issue being overlooked.
With many staff not checking that they are allowed to use their own devices, the IT department within companies needs to be more proactive in keeping on top of important business data on laptops, mobiles and tablet computers.
It comes as new data protection laws are expected to be announced by the European Commission this week in order to replace those put in place in 1995.
This law may see companies forced to take the issue more seriously than they have done in the past.
