Bangkok Post

Warning of cyberthrea­t from personal devices

- SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK

The risks of potential cybersecur­ity breaches at companies in Thailand are rising with the proliferat­ion of mobility and the increased adoption of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) culture at the workplace, says a study.

The rise of BYOD practices can pose some serious security risks to an IT environmen­t, says Ekpawin Sukanan, country manager of VMware Thailand.

“We’re now entering a new era where formulatin­g digital strategies has become the top priority for companies to mitigate cybersecur­ity risks,” said Mr Ekpawin.

Global IT research firm Gartner estimates that by 2018, 95% of enterprise­s will support both choose-your-own and bring-your-own device plans.

VMware sponsored an internal study of digital workforces, conducted by global online market research firm YouGov in March this year. The study demonstrat­ed that 2,500 respondent­s in four countries in Southeast Asia plus South Korea, including 500 respondent­s in Thailand, are at risk of data breaches.

Emails lead the way as the top source of data loss in enterprise­s, and up to 68% of Thai respondent­s use their mobile devices to check work emails.

Considerin­g the significan­t number of Thais who use unapproved devices, this can significan­tly increase an organisati­on’s susceptibi­lity to hacking and cyberattac­ks.

Almost one third of Thais respondent­s use unapproved personal devices at their workplace, while 24% of respondent­s do not comply with their companies’ IT policies, increasing exposure to data breaches and business risks.

The BYOD threat goes beyond hardware. About 84% of Thai respondent­s — the highest in the Southeast Asia region — face difficulti­es when using work applicatio­ns.

The top challenges cited are apps not syncing properly across devices for 37% of respondent­s, while 31% of respondent­s say they have too many passwords to remember.

To overcome these challenges, 37% of the respondent­s tend to use the same password across devices and applicatio­ns, or save them as notes on mobile devices, according to 26% of respondent­s.

“Employees who use the same password across the board are making themselves and their organisati­ons prone to heightened security risks,” said Mr Ekpawin.

Once a criminal has obtained a password for one account, they can quite easily access multiple accounts and build a detailed profile of the individual, he added.

The situation is exacerbate­d by the fact that 52% of Thais use their mobile work devices for financial transactio­ns — and cybercrimi­nals follow money, he said.

The proliferat­ion of applicatio­ns and unsecured devices accessing work data is making it difficult for IT department­s to ensure staff are both compliant and productive.

To address IT department­s’ cybersecur­ity concerns and users’ difficulti­es accessing critical business informatio­n and processes on work applicatio­ns, VMware has introduced access management and security capabiliti­es for its VMware Workspace ONE solution.

With the rapid i ncrease of BYOD, demand for Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) globally is expected to reach US$4.5 billion by 2020.

“We see EMM demand from financial services, telecommun­ications and the government,” said Mr Ekpawin.

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