Bring your own device (BYOD) policies have become difficult for IT teams to monitor, especially during increased travel in summer months. With more endpoints and applications in use, and often personal rather than corporate issued, the risk to corporate data may increase. ThreatX surveyed consumers from the U.S. and U.K to assess whether employees’ behaviors during the summer are inadvertently increasing API and application risk.

More than half (55%) of employees admit to relying solely on their mobile devices while working from vacation and holiday destinations in the summer. Further, 25% claim that they aren’t concerned about ensuring network connections are secure when accessing company data and 12% use a VPN when traveling and working remotely.

The results show that employees increasingly rely on personal devices to access corporate data during the summer, which could open the door to cyber criminals seeking to penetrate corporate networks. And with 38% of respondents neglecting to notify their employers when working from new locations while traveling, it becomes harder for IT teams to monitor BYOD policies and application usage.

When traveling or working remotely, 67% of Millennial employees (compared to 55% overall) said they depend on their personal mobile devices to work.

Forty-five percent of employees in the U.S. and U.K. said no specific measures to educate and remind employees on security best practices are taken during the summer, with 24% of U.K. respondents receiving access to online cybersecurity trainings and guides and even less (17%) in the U.S.

The U.S. and the U.K. admitted to using public or local WiFi or cellular data most (51% in U.S., 47% in U.K.) when working from different locations, and both were somewhat concerned about the security risks of doing so when accessing corporate data (34% in U.S., 36% in U.K.).