Study: Feds Use Mobile Devices for Work but Security Practices Lacking

By: fedweek

Some 90 percent of government employees use a mobile device for work but 41 percent are not following security best practices, according to a recent study by the Mobile Work Exchange (formerly the Telework Exchange). The Mobile Work Exchange collaborated with Cisco to develop a "secure mobilometer" survey to gather data from end users and agencies, scoring them on practices such as password protection, data loss prevention, mobile device policies and IT and security training. According to the study, 31 percent use public Wi-Fi (a risk, because, for example, a network such as "free public wifi" at a local café could actually be a hot spot someone set up on their laptop at another table), and 25 percent don’t bother using passwords – such as locking your phone. Six percent that use a mobile device for work have lost a similar device in the past. However, while 57 percent of agencies are falling short in some areas for following security best practices, that’s still better than the private sector, where 60 percent of respondents say they have downloaded a non-work app on the device they use for work versus just 15 percent for government, according to the study, The 2014 Mobilometer Tracker: Mobility, Security, and the Pressure In Between: http://www.mobileworkexchange.com/our-research/