By Patrick Avenell

AVG has today warned business against employees using their own mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to access company enterprise systems, labelling this phenomenon a security threat.

In a warning that will be well-received by smartphone security pros BlackBerry, AVG’s self-styled ‘security evangelist’ Lloyd Borrett said the growing number of staff using their own iPads, iPhones or Android devices to access company assets, such as Exchange email, is gradually shifting the internal dynamic of IT control away from the experts.

“With tablet PCs and smartphones now starting to populate SMB offices and operations, we need to question whether workers are now replacing management and IT managers as the true IT decision makers,” Borrett said.

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Within the consumer electronics and appliance industry, there a large swathes of marketing and sales managers using smartphones and tablets while travelling: either to China to source product or the country to visit a retail partner. If these reps are using their own devices, rather than an IT department issued secure smartphone (that is, a BlackBerry), the company is being placed at risk, according to Borrett.

Of course, Borrett has a solution to this: AVG Mobilation. This cloud based solution is “simple to use and always up to date”, he said.

“If businesses work smart and use technologies like this, then they can keep even the newest and most unpredictable attacks in check.”