I

t may not come as a surprise to many, but Indonesian companies are unwilling to let the '€œuncontrolled BYOD [bring-your-own-device]'€ phenomenon hamper their decision to allow a myriad of mobile devices to be connected to their enterprise networks.

In stark contrast from their Asia Pacific and ASEAN neighbors, Indonesian companies seem to under-value IT security as they continue to heighten spending on newer technology and innovation.

At present, it seems to be increasingly difficult to find excuses for enterprises that have decided to ignore potential security threats and network loopholes, in the wake of heightened Internet security breaches and issues over the past few years.

Two years ago, it seemed simple to chalk it up to immaturity '€” where the Indonesian end-user community was none the wiser when it came to issues such as these.

But International Data Corporation (IDC) Indonesia'€™s perspective is that the past couple of years have yielded enough case studies and '€œbad'€ news to ignite enough fear within organizations to strengthen their information security, especially in the face of increasing mobile devices connecting to their networks.

This then begs the questions: Are Indonesian enterprises simply lackadaisical or still ignorant when it comes to this topic?

As we dug deeper into our research, it was easy for us to strike off the fact that these enterprises were ignorant of the imminent threats.

Indonesian enterprises were clearly aware of Internet and information security issues. However, the paradox here remains that enterprises were one of the poorest when it came to spending on IT security '€” placing itself in the bottom two among 11 Asia-Pacific countries based on IDC'€™s IT Future Workspace survey, which included a sampling of 1,603 IT decision makers.

They remained right on top of the pile when it came to wanting to invest and transition '€œmobility'€ into the organization, the top three across 11 other Asia-Pacific countries when it came to being concerned over managing these mobile devices and top five when it came to recognizing them as potential security threats. So the paradox apparently continues.

So let'€™s take a step back and understand this phenomenon slightly better. Indonesia '€” as many observers already know '€” tends to be seen as a large consumer of social media. This is backed up by a ton of independent research that has shown a large take up of Twitter, Facebook, Path and whatever other social media application you toss
their way.

It is so ingrained in their lives that it is almost impossible to demarcate generations based on utilization, as it seems to have been a wave that splashed across the entire archipelago.

With that said, enter '€œsmart'€ devices, devices that were basic, but good enough for them to get 140 characters up into cyberspace, to share everything from what they are eating, to when they check into work, up to what time they head to bed.

This element of '€œsharing'€ is what IDC Indonesia dubbed a couple of years ago as the '€œbareng'€ mentality, where this community feel, and the need to interact and share among a group of friends or in some cases total strangers, is what has driven the growth of mobile Internet connectivity and the consumption of mobile devices.

After being so married to their devices '€” this conjures up the joke about a husband being turned into a smartphone after he wished to be the first '€œthing'€ his wife touched and held every morning '€” the demand for '€œmore'€ ensued.

No longer were Indonesians happy with just uploading quick text based messages to their accounts but with the growth of Internet speeds, and the introduction of '€œsmarter'€ devices that enabled more text/graphic based applications to run on them, Indonesians scurried toward other mobile devices that would help enable them do almost anything, without so much as needing to ever touch a traditional computer again.

Over the past few years as this phenomenon continued to grow, we started to witness the decline of laptop purchases and the heightened rise of smartphones and tablet devices.

Remember the '€œmarried'€ statement above? This is where BYOD fits into the picture. After being married to their devices, and getting used to the '€œnew norm'€ of clicking away on them, it began to creep into their workplace '€” in a large way.

So in sticking through to the '€œif you can'€™t beat them, join them'€ mentality, enterprises in Indonesia with the know-how, started to integrate simplistic things such as email to these devices, so as to allow their employees to be slightly more mobile, and to answer things '€œon the go'€.

While in general all this sounds positively fantastic for a growing Indonesian economy '€” especially for urbanites working in large cities '€” that'€™s where enterprises fail in actually digging deeper into the essence of what BYOD is all about '€” its advantages, its disadvantages and its pitfalls.

So I swing back to the question on whether Indonesian enterprises are lackadaisical or simply ignorant when it comes to securing these devices and paying attention to an element such as Internet security in such a day and age.

Perhaps '€œlackadaisical'€ is too harsh, but based on research we have conducted, they are definitely not '€œignorant'€.