(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) In more conventional work spaces it was found that around 70 per cent of it professionals use three or more personal devices that are connected.

there’s danger in putting out too much of your identity on social media – whether on smart phones/ connected devices at work or at home. while in theory everyone might know this a recent study by gulf business machines (gbm) has revealed to a new extent the blind spots and it security weaknesses of the cloud in the uae. the study that polled 1060 it professionals in the uae saudi qatar oman bahrain and kuwait revealed that 63 per cent of companies in the uae invest 15 per cent or less of their it budgets in security.

> 60% of respondents in the uae believe the middle east is a prime target for cyber crime

> 63% of companies in the uae invest 15% or less of their it budgets in security

> 10% of respondents in 2012 reported owning 5 or more personal devices; 26% of respondents in 2014 reported owning 5 or more personal devices

> 49% of respondents are allowed to connect personal devices at work

> 62% of respondents’ employers partially or do not at all restrict social media access

> 70% of respondents’ employers main concern around cloud adoption is data security

> 58% of security incidents in the past 12 months were caused by internal staff; 35% of security incidents in the previous 12 months were caused by internal staff in last year’s findings

> 39% of companies utilise free cloud-based online file storage services at work

hani nofal director of intelligent network solutions (ins) at gbm spoke to khaleej times about the awareness problem when it comes to security and connectivity. “you need to be very careful with your identity on social media. once you put something out there in the cloud you have no control over how many copies of that information are being made and how that data is being used.”

nofal says: “in the past when we had a security breach you would lose data and money. now it’s a question of lives.”

while this sounds ominous hani says the changing nature of connected devices imposes these risks.

connected devices used to be laptops smart phones tablets. now you have connected watches connected wristbands even connected toothbrushes and connected cars.

nofal asks you to imagine a security breach on a smart-car that you’re driving. the evolution of smart devices alters even the concept of road hazard.

in another example of smart new age connected devices nofal shares that winner of the french open men’s title rafael nadal even uses a smart tennis racquet that tracks his forehands and backhands.

in more conventional work spaces it was found that around 70 per cent of it professionals use three or more personal devices that are connected. in general there is a demand to have more connected devices. “all these connected devices are collecting data and transmitting all the times” nofal says talking about the ‘internet of things’. if 15 years ago with the advent of mobile phones the concern was that it became impossible to escape from people the explosion of connected devices and their changing nature has led to an onslaught of graver problems. sixty per cent of respondents in the uae believe the middle east is a prime target for cyber crime.

aside from the results of the survey one of the things that nofal shares is that “i would be very careful about using confidential data on social platforms – be it google dropbox or evernote or any of the others.”

it’s for companies to provide for their employees alternative platforms that are more secure and able to deal with the several security threats floating about in the cloud.

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