28 Mar 2018

Mobile working survey: cafés see highest number of Wi-Fi security incidents

The iPass Mobile Security Report 2018 has revealed that 57 per cent of 500 organisations from the US, UK, Germany and France, suspect that their mobile workers have been hacked or caused a mobile security issue in the last 12 months.

81 per cent of respondents said they had seen Wi-Fi related security incidents in the last 12 months, with cafés and coffee shops (62 per cent) ranked as the venues where such incidents had occurred most. That was closely followed by airports (60 per cent) and hotels (52 per cent), with other locations on the list including train stations (30 per cent), exhibition centres (26 per cent), and in-flight (20 per cent).

94 per cent of enterprises said that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has increased mobile security risks. Overall, 92 per cent of organisations said they were concerned their growing mobile workforce presents an increasing number of mobile security challenges.

The research also shows the majority of organisations are still addressing mobile security problems by banning employee usage of free Wi-Fi hotspots. More than a quarter (27 per cent) ban their use at all times, while 40 per cent ban their use sometimes. A further 16 per cent plan to introduce a ban on public Wi-Fi hotspots in the future.