Firms are risking security breaches by failing to manage the proliferation of employees bringing their own computing devices to work.

More than two-thirds (73%) of firms report that staff are bringing their own devices such as smartphones and tablets to work, yet almost half (46%) are still without an IT strategy to manage the practice, according to a survey of 92 partners from digital document company Altodigital.

Around 40% of respondents reported IT problems as a result of their lack of IT strategy. Of those, 71% reported network security breaches or viruses, 48% said they experienced ’connectivity issues’, and 23% reported problems with email or internet access.

Kate Hanaghan, research director at analyst firm TechMarketView, said it is crucial for firms to have 'BYOD’ (bring your own device) policies in place in order to avoid the loss of confidential information. If employees are using their own devices it is difficult for the IT department to control the information contained on them, she said. 

‘This could be a particular problem for the legal world, with a number of sensitive documents in use,’ she said.

Failure to manage BYOD could also create problems for IT departments, as they may not be able to provide support for employees’ own devices, she said.