Businesses 'lack confidence in controlling mobile access'

Companies are concerned about their ability to control access to mobile devices, it has been suggested.

Courion has published the results of a poll showing enterprises worry that users connecting to networks off-site via portable telephony solutions such as smartphones could place data at risk.

Although the survey found many companies are confident about in-house security, mobile devices and the cloud are seen as posing a greater threat to systems, with 69 per cent of organisations reporting that employees use personal technology to access corporate networks.

In addition, one in five IT decision makers were found to have no policies in place to govern the use of mobile gadgets in relation to business information.

"Companies are scrambling to keep up with the information access vulnerabilities and compliance violations created by mobile devices that access and store confidential information," Courion senior vice-president of product and marketing Dave Fowler warned.

However, recent research released by Citrix Online showed one-third of small and medium-sized firms integrating personal communications technology into their operations have seen productivity improve by ten per cent or more.