According to a series of reports issued this year by analyst firm, Gartner, there is a new civil war erupting between IT departments and end users. And the signs are that the IT departments are losing.
Thanks to technological ‘advances’ such as cheap portable memory, more and more end users are feeling inclined to disregard the way IT wants them to work and instead create their own rules for acceptable behavior and security practices. The result, in many cases, is not only a loss of control for the IT team, but a greater risk of security breaches both on and off the network.
According to Gartner, USB sticks were the top-ranked (of six) technologies that are creating a headache for IT departments. The challenge to the IT department is to find a way to both accept their presence on the network but also ensure they do not represent a unncessary security risk. As such, the analyst firm recommends that organizations investigate a combination of endpoint security software to manage which users can and cannot use such devices - as well as investing in ’secured’ devices which offer some level of protection if the device is lost or stolen.
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