It’s been several years in the making, but now it finally appears that tech predictions are coming true and wearable technology is taking hold in the workplace. Wearable technology is the newest wave of mobile devices, and includes products such as the Apple Watch, Google Glass and the Fitbit activity tracker. A survey carried out by security company Trend Micro found that employees in 79% of European companies had adopted wearable technology and brought wearable devices to work. 

The survey also asked the 800 senior IT decision-makers whether they had been encouraging employees to use wearables. 77% of respondents did encourage staff to adopt this new tech, but 39% of UK respondents said that they actively discouraged staff from using wearables. 

Nevertheless, the vast majority of businesses have already implemented wearable technology in the office (18%), are implementing wearable tech (28%) or are interested in implementing wearable tech in the office (34%).

The main reasons given for the adoption of wearable technology included boosting productivity, adding to bring your own device (BYOD) programmes and as a requirement for business insurance policies. 

However, 95% of respondents said that wearable devices represented a potential security risk, with 47% stating that risks came from lax cyber security policies. 43% saw wearables as a weak point in terms of cyber security, while 56% said that they’d have to introduce limits on data captured by wearables to maintain security. Over three-quarters of respondents said that businesses should introduce wearable device policies to deal with the security issues the devices present. 

Office technology will always carry some form of cyber security risk, but you can minimise the risk with a thorough corporate cyber security plan. 

Need to upgrade your office technology? Contact us and let us help you find the right technology solutions for your business. 

March 11th 2015 | Back to Industry Insights