Employees would rather be Mobile Mollies than Desktop Doras

More than 80 percent of global employees do not want to return to the office full-time, despite 30 percent claiming that being isolated from their team was the biggest hindrance to productivity during lockdown.

A new study from mobile-centric security platform MobileIron also uncovers some worrying views around security, with 33 percent considering it to be low priority.

The current distributed remote work environment has triggered a new threat landscape, with malicious actors increasingly targeting mobile devices with phishing attacks. These range from basic to sophisticated and are likely to succeed, with many employees unaware of how to identify and avoid a phishing attack. Indeed the study reveals that 43 percent of global employees aren't sure what a phishing attack is.

"Mobile devices are everywhere and have access to practically everything, yet most employees have inadequate mobile security measures in place, enabling hackers to have a heyday," says Brian Foster, SVP product management at MobileIron. "Hackers know that people are using their loosely secured mobile devices more than ever before to access corporate data, and increasingly targeting them with phishing attacks. Every company needs to implement a mobile-centric security strategy that prioritizes user experience and enables employees to maintain maximum productivity on any device, anywhere, without compromising personal privacy."

The study of 1,200 workers across the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand identifies four distinct employee personas that have emerged as a result of lockdown:

• Hybrid Henry -- typically works in financial services, professional services or the public sector and ideally splits time equally between working at home and going into the office for face-to-face meetings.
• Mobile Molly -- works constantly on the go using a range of mobile devices, such as tablets and phones, and often relies on public WiFi networks for work.
• Desktop Dora -- finds being away from teammates and working from home a hindrance to productivity and can't wait to get back to the office.
• Frontline Fred -- works on the frontlines in industries like healthcare, logistics or retail and can’t work remotely.

You can find out more about these personalities and the report's other findings on the MobileIron site.

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