Malaysian businesses at risk of data breaches: VMware study

By Digital News Asia April 12, 2017

Eighty-one percent of Malaysia’s workforce face issues accessing mobile work applications
Forty-two percent of employees don’t comply with their company’s IT policies or even know them

Malaysian businesses at risk of data breaches: VMware study

VMWARE, Inc on April 11 announced a new VMware Digital Workspace Study, which found that Malaysian businesses might be at risk of costly data breaches and cyber-attacks, with more than a third (38%) of employees using unapproved personal devices for work.

These security risks are exacerbated by ignorance of technology guidelines, with close to half (42%) of employees who do not comply with their company’s IT policies or do not know them at all.

The VMware Digital Workspace Study, which surveyed 2,000 professionals across Southeast Asia on their BYOD habits, revealed that the majority of Malaysians (79%) turn to personal mobile devices for work.

When it comes to technology infrastructure provided by the company, more than half (55%) of them feel that devices issued by their organisations do not meet their needs. Additionally, most do not trust the efficiency of these devices and their capability to allow employees to work seamlessly across multiple platforms.

“Businesses in Malaysia are facing increasing challenges in securing workflows between users, applications and data in a dynamic work environment. The proliferation of unsecured and unapproved mobile devices at work makes a company more vulnerable to data breaches and cyber-attacks. Enterprises cannot rely solely on IT departments to implement and enforce robust security policies.

“They will also need to educate employees on security, while delivering a seamless technology experience that helps them maximize productivity,” said VMware Malaysia and Brunei country manager Alex Loh (pic).

The BYOD threat goes beyond security. Eighty-one percent of Malaysian employees said they encounter difficulties when using work applications. The main roadblocks are “having too many passwords to remember” (42%); “different interface experiences” (39%); and “apps that do not sync up perfectly across devices” (31%).

To overcome these challenges, employees use the same password across devices and applications (29%) or save them as notes on their mobile devices (29%).

“Malaysian enterprises are embracing digital transformation and its resultant benefits, but they negate the productivity gains that mobility promises when employees end up spending a protracted amount of time sorting out IT issues.

“Providing a consumer-simple and enterprise-secure experience is a critical step companies need to take to pave the way to enable agile innovation, better ways of working and improved business models and revenue,” said Loh.

Loh emphasised the need for businesses to break technology silos: “End-users need simplicity and choice while IT wants security and control. Companies often get enterprise security done right at the expense of consumer simplicity.”