If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know just how much we stress the importance of developing apps with great user experiences and real utility in the workplace. It’s simple: good apps help increase adoption rates, keep your employees engaged, and may even help mitigate shadow IT usage.
The trouble is, of course, that apps don’t grow on trees. Developing any app—much less one that checks all the boxes we just listed—takes a sizeable investment of time and money. It also involves finding a team of developers, internal or external, who are up to the task. All of which is to say that there’s a lot of pressure on companies to develop and deploy apps—and quickly.
A new study from F5 Networks and the Ponemon Institute, “Application Security in the Changing Risk Landscape,” suggests that this pressure is catching up to companies—and having real consequences in the process.
F5 and Poneomon surveyed 605 IT and IT security experts and found that 67% of respondents “believe the ‘rush to release’ causes app developers in their organizations to miss important steps in safeguarding the apps.” Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) respondents also believe that a shortage of skilled developers is putting those same apps at risk. As for shadow IT? 43% of respondents stated they have “no confidence” that they know all the applications in their organization today.
All of this is happening at a time when employees are pushing, more than ever, for mobile solutions to help them do their jobs better. These days, employees expect company-built (or at least sanctioned) mobile apps in the workplace. That expectation only puts more pressure on companies to stay ahead of the curve.
It might not be surprising that rushing app releases impacts app security; what is surprising to us is just how many security experts believe their apps are being rushed, and are not as secure as a result. Whether you count yourself among that rushed group is up to you, but it’s essential to remember that taking the extra time to do things right on the front end will save you a lot of headaches down the road.
