Holiday Shopping with Personal Devices At Work Could Pose Security Risk

Workers are planning to do more online holiday shopping this year while on the job, with many using their own personal smartphones and tablets, a new survey shows.

As a result, many IT managers are worried about corporate network security since personal devices may face a greater risk of being hacked during shopping forays, according to ISACA, a non-profit IT advisory group with 95,000 members. Most are IT workers and managers.

In two surveys, ISACA found that the average American will spend 32 hours shopping online this holiday season, with 11 of those hours on a personally-owned smartphone or tablet that is also used for work tasks. Because the device connects to corporate networks and accesses data at times, its use for personal online transactions can post a significant hacker risk to companies unless precautions are taken, ISACA officials said.

The full report is available here: http://www.isaca.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/2011-US-Online-Holiday-Shopping-Key-Findings.pdf

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