Nearly half of UK firms hit by breaches from unmanaged devices
New research has highlighted significant security vulnerabilities in UK businesses due to a lack of oversight of company devices, with nearly half of firms experiencing data breaches related to unmanaged devices over the past year.
The report, titled "Bridging the Visibility Gap," was carried out by Scalefusion and surveyed IT leaders across the UK, identifying major gaps in enterprise device management practices that are leaving organisations susceptible to cyber threats.
Key findings
The study identified that more than two-thirds (67%) of IT leaders do not have complete visibility over all devices used for work across their organisations. Additionally, almost a quarter (23.5%) of respondents said they detected unauthorised devices accessing corporate data at least once a month. Within organisations that suffered breaches related to unmanaged devices, over a third reported monthly attacks, suggesting persistent vulnerabilities.
Only 35% of IT leaders expressed strong confidence in their team's capability to quickly contain and resolve security incidents, underscoring widespread concern about current security resources and approaches.
Shadow IT and hybrid working
The findings point to the complications arising from the widespread adoption of hybrid and remote working. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of organisations disclosed they had found previously unknown devices or applications being utilised for work purposes in the past year, a reflection of the expanding shadow IT environment within companies.
The research noted that among the 48% of firms experiencing breaches stemming from unmanaged devices, 35% suffered these incidents on a monthly basis. This frequency indicates these vulnerabilities are not isolated but form part of a larger, systematic issue facing many businesses.
Proliferation of security tools
The study further revealed that some measures put in place to increase security may be complicating matters. Almost six out of ten (59%) organisations are using four or more endpoint security tools. This proliferation has introduced its own set of operational challenges.
More than half (53%) of respondents cited increased administrative work as a result of using multiple tools. Other reported issues included a lack of interoperability between different solutions (35%), increased costs (41%), and gaps in critical data visibility (37%). Only a small minority (7%) of organisations indicated they encountered no problems with this multi-tool approach.
These findings confirm what we've been hearing from businesses across the UK and Ireland – there's a critical gap between the security challenges organisations face and their ability to address them effectively. What businesses need is visibility and simplification – a unified approach that brings all endpoints under one management umbrella rather than juggling multiple disconnected systems.
The comment was made by Sally King, Channel Sales Manager UK&I at Scalefusion, reflecting growing demand for integrated management solutions in the sector.
Adoption of unified approaches
Despite the operational and security issues highlighted, the report noted positive trends regarding the adoption of unified solutions. Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) platforms are now the most popular method for onboarding employees, being used by 43% of organisations surveyed. There is also clear interest in zero-touch deployment, with 68% of IT leaders attracted to the prospect of reducing hands-on setup time per device.
The research concluded that organisations recognising the need to address current challenges are increasingly considering unified approaches to device management as a means of enhancing both security and operational efficiency.
The study was conducted among IT leaders and employees from a broad range of industries and company sizes, and examined the current practices, challenges, and incidents relating to endpoint management and device visibility within UK organisations.
