Why Millennials Ignore Security Protocols at Work

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://socialtimes.com/millennials-ignore-security-protocols-work_b204124

Data security is widely regarded as the number one concern for companies.
Consumers are worriedabout their data and IT professionals are concerned
about the cloud. Still, millennial employees in particular, seem to lag
behind in security adoption, and it’s likely because tech companies have
overbearing security policies.

According to TrackIt survey data cited by Wired, 60 percent of millennials
“aren’t concerned about corporate security when they use personal apps
instead of corporate-approved apps.” It may be because they believe it’s
not a big deal, but the data seems to indicate that clunky security
mandates are behind the lack of worry.

The heavy-handed solution to an environment with a bring-your-own-device
policy is to blacklist certain apps. There are a myriad of problems with
this approach: IT departments can’t keep up with the release of new apps,
blacklisting kills productivity (instead of saving it) and can sow discord
between IT departments and other employees.

The idea behind blacklisting to save productivity backfires most harshly
when it comes to productivity tools that haven’t been employer approved.
According to the TrackIt data, “nearly 50 percent of millennials bring
personal apps into enterprises because corporate apps don’t meet their
needs.” And because of the discord between employees, 69 percent of
millennials say they have never worked with IT to select new corporate apps.

Skype, YouTube and Facebook may seem like time wasters to corporate
management, but when communication tools and vital parts of marketing
campaigns are off limits, millennials will find other ways.

The key to increasing security awareness among millennials is to work the
way they work. The solution in a BYOD environment is multi-persona
virtualization, according to Wired.

“Multi-persona virtualization creates multiple user personas at the
operating system level on a single smartphone. This means a millennial
could have three or more separate personas: one for general use, one for
sensitive personal applications such as finance and health, and one persona
for professional use.”

Among such a tech-savvy group it makes no sense for corporate security
concerns to be so sidelined. Allowing millennials to demonstrate their
needs through multiple personas on their operating system could enable IT
departments to find better solutions to workplace technology needs and
could spur innovation within the workplace. Then, security wouldn’t just be
for nerds.

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