ISACA Survey: IT Professionals in Africa Expect Employee Online Shopping to Increase Risk

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. - Wednesday, November 2nd 2011 [ME NewsWire]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- With faster Internet service and the skyrocketing use of smartphones, the number of Africans shopping online has dramatically increased in recent years. According to the 2011 Shopping on the Job Survey: Online Holiday Shopping and BYOD Security, conducted by global information technology association ISACA, 50% of the 318 IT professionals surveyed in Africa believe that employees will do more online shopping during work hours this holiday season posing increased risk to the enterprise.

More than 4,700 ISACA members in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania participated in the 2011 Shopping on the Job survey. The results identify similarities and differences in attitudes and behaviors related to the risks and benefits associated with online shopping and the blurring use of personal and work devices.

Among the similarities across regions, most expect that employees will spend 1-2 hours shopping online using work computers and another 1-2 hours using personal devices during work hours. The majority worldwide and 62% from Africa believe that the risk from using personal mobile devices for work—the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend—still outweighs the benefits.

“As enterprises increasingly allow employees to use personal devices for work, it is critical to embrace technology while educating employees on minimizing risk,” said Ken Vander Wal, CISA, CPA, ISACA international president.

BYOD in Africa

Most IT professionals in Africa consider using a work-supplied device to click on an e-mail link to access a shopping site (62%), access a social networking site (50%), use mobile shopping applications (47%), and download personal files or music (64%) to be high-risk activities. While 46% say their enterprises restrict employees’ use of IT assets for personal purposes due to security concerns, many (40%) still allow the use of work-supplied devices for personal use. However, many enterprises (73%) limit or prohibit social networking or daily deal sites from a work-supplied device.

While the use of applications with geolocation is increasing, 53% of African respondents say their enterprises don’t provide security guidance on it. Geolocation is valuable, but employees need education on when to enable and disable it. ISACA’s five-step ROUTEhelps minimize geolocation risk:

Read mobile app agreements to see what information you are sharing.
Only enable geolocation when the benefits outweigh the risk.
Understand that others can track your current and past locations.
Think before posting tagged photos to social media sites.
Embrace the technology, and educate yourself and others.

“In Africa, and globally, lines between work and personal mobile devices are blurring. Along with this risky overlap are the added elements of geolocation and increased use of electronic payment,” said Brian Barnier, CGEIT, CRISC,member of ISACA’s Risk IT development team. “Enterprises must understand technology-related risk. For example, mobile money transfers can benefit rural areas, but open a door to fraud.”

Full survey results are at www.isaca.org/online-shopping-risk. Guidance on securing mobile device is available at www.isaca.org/mobile-devices.

About the ISACA Survey

The fourth ISACA Shopping on the Job Survey: Online Holiday Shopping and BYOD Security gauges attitudes and behaviors related to online shopping, and the blurring boundaries between personal and work devices. The study is based on October 2011 online polling of 4,740 ISACA members from 84 countries, including 318 members from Africa. Full results: www.isaca.org/online-shopping-risk.

About ISACA

Founded in 1969, the nonprofit ISACA (www.isaca.org) attests IT skills and knowledge through the CISA, CISM, CGEIT and CRISC designations. Follow ISACA on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ISACANews.

Contacts

ISACA

Joanne Duffer, +1.847.660.5564

news@isaca.org