92 percent IT departments barriers against enterprise mobility

MUMBAI, INDIA: Ninety two percent of IT departments worldwide still restrict users from accessing sensitive corporate data and resources from mobile devices.

According to a recent global survey of 900 IT decision makers by Gemalto, despite the fact that 98 percent organizations have users who require mobile or remote access, 95 perent IT departments are raising obstacles to increased user mobility, primarily because of security concerns.

Some of the key findings include:

Mobility: Almost 97 percent respondents' organizations recognize enterprise mobility is important in their work practices.

The number of users utilizing tokens for mobility in organizations looks likely to increase across the board, on average, 37 percent of users is currently using them for mobility with this figure expected to increase to 46 percent in two years.

Cloud: Cloud is also significant factor when it comes to choosing the preferred delivery model of two-factor authentication with 90 percent agreeing that cloud delivery as a key consideration in the purchasing process of a strong authentication solution.

When it comes to the final purchasing decision however, over half the organizations reveal that this decision lies with the CIO, with the CSO, CCO, CEO and CFO all likely to be involved in the process as well.

TCO: According to 20 percent respondents, the most significant consideration when deciding which two-factor authentication solution to select is the total cost of ownership.

Security threats and compliance:

Almost 95 percent respondents think that it is important that their organization has the ability to produce a single audit trail of access events taking place throughout different resources.

Ninety five percent respondents think that two-factor authentication can help their organization comply with data protection regulations and pass security audits.

The fear factor:

The 2015 Global Authentication and Identity Access Management Index said that 94 percent respondents are concerned that their organization will be breached or hacked as a result of credential theft or compromise.

This is exacerbated by the rise in mobile endpoints within organizations, as most organizations reported to have on average, two mobile endpoints per user and managing three sets of credentials per user, the study said. Additionally, on average, one out of every five (20 percent) IT support tickets are resulting from lost or forgotten usernames and passwords.

"The pressure is on for IT departments to accommodate demands for greater mobility as employees crave new and flexible approaches to working," said François Lasnier, Senior Vice President, Identity Protection, Gemalto. "Organizations that are not open to this change are very likely to be inhibiting business productivity.”

"Organizations recognize the need to scale security to protect as many on-premises and cloud applications as possible, especially when sourcing a two-factor authentication solution," said Garrett Bekker, Senior Security Analyst, 451 Research. "The survey findings suggest that the choice of two-factor authentication will depend on the solution's ability to provide centralized management, as well as secure access to the widest range of applications."