Businesses ban iPods

iPods, digitial music players, and other portable storage devices are being targetted by a larger number companies, according to a new survey. A new Ipsos Reid poll, conducted on behalf of Sun Microsystems of Canada, says that Canadian businesses are trying to minimize business risks by monitoring and managing the portable storage devices their employees bring to work. The survey found that almost half (49%) of senior leaders in mid- and large-sized businesses across Canada have established policies to prevent personal laptops and USB keys from entering the workplace and nearly 30 percent have banned MP3 players, such as iPods. The companies appear to be wary of employees stealing customer information with forty-two percent of surveyed executives saying that the greatest negative impact a security breach will have on their operations is theft of customer information.

"But while many of the companies polled are probably taking measures to prevent the risk of data loss due to security breach or theft, only 32 percent of the executives interviewed believed that their businesses perform at optimum levels to prevent and manage potential attack," according to the study. Of those polled, approximately seven out of ten executives believe there is room for improvement for preventing risk among a mobile workforce.

The report also found that seventeen percent admit that they have a very poor understanding of the risks associated with remote or wireless access, while approximately one in ten believe that they are doing a poor job of mitigating risks (13%) and are not applying proper procedures to successfully deal with security breaches (11%).

by MacNN Staff