Out-Law News 1 min. read

Rise in use of tablets issued by employers as survey highlights smartphone malware problems


The number of employees who have been issued with a tablet device to use by the employer has risen within the last year, according to a new survey.

Market analysts Ovum said that 17.6% of the employees it had questioned in its "multi-market" second-quarter 2013 survey had been issued with a tablet to use by their employer to undertake work tasks. The comparative figure for 2012 was 12.5%, it said.

Ovum said that the survey had identified a rise in the number of personal tablet owners, with 44.5% of those surveyed now owning such a device compared with 28.4% last year. Nearly 70% (69.7%) of those who said they own a personal tablet said they use that device for business purposes, it added.

In a separate report, technology analysts Juniper Research warned that 80% of business and consumer-owned smartphone devices would feature security vulnerabilities throughout the remainder of 2013.

However, Juniper predicted that "mobile security software" would be installed on 1.3 billion mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, by 2018. It said that currently 325 million such devices have the software installed.

"The low level of adoption of security software can be attributed to a number of factors, including the relatively low consumer awareness about online attack on mobile devices and a widespread consumer perception that the price of security products is excessive," Juniper said in a statement.

However, Juniper said that consumer awareness of mobile security issues was increasing.

The Ovum survey and Juniper report follows on from other recent research by Samsung which found that fewer than a third of large European employers currently have a formal 'bring your own device' (BYOD) policy.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK has previously urged businesses to have a clear BYOD policy, ensure devices are password-protected and that data is encrypted when being transferred as well as when stored in order to meet their obligations under data protection law.

Lawyers at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, have previously explained what businesses should explain to staff about data privacy, security and confidentiality as well as intellectual property rights before permitting them to use their own devices for business purposes.

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