Finding Unmanaged Apple Devices are a Liability for Corporations

Lack of encryption and weak or shared passwords expose sensitive corporate and customer information

Centrify Corporation, the leader in securing identities from cyberthreats, announced findings from a recent survey it commissioned to determine penetration and security compliance of Apple devices in the workplace. Conducted by Dimensional Research, the Centrify Apple survey demonstrates that while people widely use Apple devices for work, lack of security and management of those devices exposes companies to significant liabilities.

Of the total 2,249 US workers surveyed, nearly half (45 per cent) use at least one Apple device for work purposes. In addition :

• A majority of those Apple devices (63 per cent) are owned by the user as opposed to the company and are used to access work email, corporate documents and business applications
• 59 percent of Macs are used to access confidential company information
• 65 per cent of Macs are used to access sensitive or regulated customer information
• 51 per cent of iPhones in the workplace are used to gain access to business applications
• 58 per cent of iPads in the workplace are used to gain access to business applications

However, despite the popularity of Apple devices in the workplace, businesses do not invest enough resources to secure or manage them.

• Over half (51 per cent) of all devices are secured by a password that is merely a single word or a series of numbers

1. Most devices (58 per cent) also do not have software installed to enforce strong passwords
2. More than half (56 per cent) of users report sharing their passwords with others
3. Only 17 per cent of Apple devices have a company-supplied password manager

• Only 28 per cent of Apple devices have company-provided device management solutions installed

1. Only 35 per cent of Apple devices have encryption of stored data enforced by their company

• Ultimately there is no discernable correlation between password strength and sensitivity of information accessed or accessible from a particular device or user

“Centrify’s Apple survey spotlights the massive exposures that occur when devices do not comply with standard corporate security policies,” said Bill Mann, senior vice president of products and marketing, Centrify. “In particular, customer data represents a huge liability. Disclosure of regulated information such as healthcare records could expose corporations to fines and other legal action. Most importantly, there are solutions on the market today that can handily secure Apple devices without sacrificing user productivity. It’s time for IT to take action.”

Centrify provides the only fully integrated enterprise solution for Apple users, devices and applications across existing corporate networks and beyond. Whether Apple device users work inside or outside of the corporate firewall, Centrify provides all of the capabilities necessary to keep them secure and productive.

Centrify integrates comprehensive mobile & Mac management with Identity and Access management. Unlike standalone Enterprise Mobile Management vendors, who can only do device management and push applications to devices, Centrify integrates the ability to secure and manage devices with the identity policy required to manage app access, across devices.  The ability to combine the device’s security posture and location with a user’s role to make application access decisions is unique to Centrify.[su_box title=”About Centrify” style=”noise” box_color=”#336588″]Centrify strengthens enterprise security by managing and securing identities from cyberthreats. As organizations expand IT resources and teams beyond their premises, identity is becoming the new security perimeter. With our platform of integrated software and cloud-based services, Centrify uniquely secures and unifies identity for both privileged and end users across today’s hybrid IT world of cloud, mobile and data center. The result is stronger security and compliance, improved business agility and enhanced user productivity through single sign-on. Over 5000 customers, including half of the Fortune 50 and over 80 federal agencies, leverage Centrify to secure identities.[/su_box]