Could Pokemon Go put business at risk?

A new report suggests that popular gaming apps such as Pokemon GO could be violating corporate risk policies.

According to IDC, the number of smartphone and tablet gamers should increase to more than 1.9 billion in 2020.  Millions of mobile device users are predicted to play these types of augmented reality games within a few years, and the workplace is not immune.

A Flexera Software report, ‘It’s Not All Fun and Games: A BYOD Reality Check for Companies’, found that 73% of tested apps support location services and tracking, 68% support social networking, 58% support calendar access and 54% support SMS.

“Some employees care about data security and privacy when they curate the apps they download to their mobile phones, but many don’t,” Flexera Software Vice President of Product Management said.

“When those phones are ‘bring your own device’, poor employee choices suddenly impact corporate risk. That is why application readiness automation — commonly used by companies to test their enterprise applications — must be extended to mobile apps, so CIOs can have a firm understanding of which ones violate their BYOD policies.”

To compile the report, Flexera Software identified almost 60 widely used gaming applications, representing a small sample of those that can be found in the Apple App Store and that could easily be downloaded by employees to a corporate-issued or BYOD device. These apps were tested using AdminStudio Mac and Mobile, an application readiness solution that helps organisations identify, manage, track and report on mobile apps.

“Unfortunately, not all mobile app developers are trustworthy,” said Polte.

Image courtesy of Flexera Software.