Fortinet, a vendor of network security appliances and online threat management services, recently had the market research company Vision Critical survey 3,200 university graduate-level people aged 21 to 32 who owned their own smartphone, tablet, or laptop. If you’re unable to access the funny pictures at AcidCow.com at the office, chances are it some piece of Fortinet software that’s stopping you. Chances are also that “Generation Y”, a.k.a. “The Millennials” — those born between 1980 and 2000, and who are the target of the survey — are going to try to find some way around that restriction.
Generation Y grew up never knowing a world without DOS or its descendants, and those born in the latter half of that generation likely never knew a time when it was unusual to have a computer in the house, never mind a networked one. Most of this generation are either entering the workforce or well into the start of their post-schooling working lives, and they’re the next generation of leaders, decision-makers, and department heads. It is these people that Fortinet wanted Vision Critical to interview about their attitudes and opinions on corporate policies, rules and regulations on mobile devices and their use in the workplace.
The key findings in Fortinet’s 19-page report on Gen Y are:
- They believe that BYOD empowers workers. 45% of participants in the survey said that being able to bring their own devices to work lets them get their work done.
- They’re ready to use wearable technology. 50% of participants agreed that when wearable technology becomes available and affordable, and came with the right apps, they’d use it at work.
- They’ll break company mobile policies that get in their way. “Up to 51% of the sample” said that they would break rules and regulations that restricted the use of their own devices, cloud storage and services and wearable technologies for work. This represents an increase in defiance from a similar 2012 survey, where 42% said they’d go against such policies.
- Their devices have been compromised. “High instances of sample respondents” say they’ve been cyberattacked.
- Some of them were well-versed in security, other could stand to learn more. While a “hardcore” segment of the people surveyed — about 20 to 25% of the participants — knew about such things as APTs and DDoSs, a “worrying minority” — about 11% of them — claimed never to have heard of terms like “cybercrime”.
The report on Fortinet’s survey, Internet Security Census 2013, spans 19 pages, covers the findings above in greater detail, and is available for free in exchange for some contact information. To get a free PDF copy of the report, go to Fortinet’s Internet Security Census 2013 page.