A third of professionals using mobile devices such as PDAs and Smartphones don’t use passwords or any other security protection, it is claimed.
Yet three out of ten of these handheld happy users store their PIN numbers, passwords and other corporate information on them. That’s according to results taken from The Mobile Usage Survey 2005, conducted for the fourth year by Pointsec Mobile Technologies.
The results are even more staggering, the software firm says, considering the survey was conducted amongst IT professionals who are "hopefully" more security savvy than the average employee.
According to the survey, corporate personnel now store huge amounts of corporate data on their mobile devices, including customer contacts, email details, passwords and bank account details as well as personal and private information such as friend’s details, personal images and even PIN numbers, without giving much consideration to security.
As a result, a lost PDA or Smartphone with no protection makes easy pickings for common thieves, opportunists, hackers or competitors and could enable them to steal your identity and get at your corporate information, according to the firm. This could have a huge impact on customer confidence, cause an organisation to breach the data protection act or do untold damage to a company’s reputation, the firm adds. On a personal level, it could expose you to fraud, embarrass your friends or wreck your personal life, the survey suggested.
Since the survey began four years ago, awareness of the risks of storing unencrypted data on a handheld is still surprisingly low and needs to be improved to prevent security breaches, it is claimed. Some 78 percent of users do not encrypt the information on their PDA or Smartphone even though sensitive personal and valuable corporate information is being stored on these devices with 81pc using them to store business names and addresses, 45pc to receive and view emails and 27pc store corporate information. Some 59 percent also use their devices as a business diary and 14pc use them to store information on their customers.
According to the survey more people than ever before are losing their mobile devices, last year 16pc had lost one; this year it has increased to 22pc and of those that did lose their device 81pc had not encrypted their information and admitted that they were worried that the information could fall into the wrong hands and not only cause a security risk as corporate and private data could be lost, but also embarrassment as friends and colleagues could be contacted by a total stranger.
Many were concerned that losing their device would cost them money and that they would lose "everything" as they hadn’t backed-up their information. Others were saddened that when they lost their mobile device they had also lost photos and video clips which had not been backed up. One interviewee lost his Smartphone by "throwing the bloody thing out the window" – clearly an overworked IT Director! the firm suggests.
Travelling with your mobile device still appears to be the most likely way to lose it, the survey shows, with the majority of them not being stolen, but forgotten in the back of a taxi, or left in an airport or on the train. Having one too many drinks in a nightclub or relaxing in a restaurant can also be dangerous as they are the next most common place to lose a device.
When people do lose their mobile device only 40pc inform the police as the rest don’t believe there is anything the police can do or it costs more to report it than to replace it.
What they say
Martin Allen – Managing Director of Pointsec said: "Handheld devices are now firmly entrenched in our corporate and personal lives and most of us wouldn’t be able to function without them, however, with so much information stored on them it’s essential to secure them. We believe this survey shows just the tip of the iceberg as it has been conducted amongst IT professionals who are far more security savvy than most other handheld device users. Our advice is secure it, or don’t use it!"
The most common functions for the PDA and Smartphone are to store:
1. Personal names and addresses – 86pc
2. Business names and addresses 81pc
3. Telephone 71pc
4. Business diary 59pc
5. Personal diary 55pc
6. Receive and view emails 45pc
7. Entertainment – games, music etc 37pc
8. Passwords/PIN numbers 37pc
9. Personal images (photographs) 33pc
10. Corporate information 27pc
11. Bank account details 15pc.
About the survey
The Mobile Usage Survey 2005 was conducted among 73 IT managers, with 34pc coming from companies employing over 1,000 staff.
