The security firm and SC magazine yesterday published the findings of The Mobile Usage Survey 2005, revealing that there is still a low awareness of the risks of storing unencrypted data on handhelds.
According to the survey, 78% of users do not encrypt the information on their PDA or Smartphone even though sensitive personal and valuable corporate information is being stored there.
Eighty-one percent of users use these devices to store business names and addresses, 45% to receive and view emails and 27% store corporate information on them. Fifty-nine percent also use their devices as a business diary and 14% use them to store information on their customers.
As a result, lost and unprotected PDAs or Smartphones make easy pickings for common thieves, opportunists, hackers or competitors and could enable them to steal the user’s identity or get at the user’s corporate information.
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. On a personal level, it could expose users to fraud, embarrass their friends or wreck their personal lives, said Pointsec.
According to the survey, more people than ever before are losing their mobile devices – up to 22% of those surveyed, as opposed to 16% last year. Of those who did lose their handhelds, 81% had not encrypted their information and admitted that they were worried that the information could fall into the wrong hands.
The majority of “lost” devices have not been stolen, but simply left in the back of a taxi, in an airport or on the train, said Pointsec. Nightclubs and restaurants are also common places to lose a handheld.
“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," said Martin Allen, Managing Director of Pointsec. "Our advice is secure it, or don't use it."
Rene Millman,Online and UK News Editor for SC Magazine added:
"I can't believe that so many people wouldn't think to secure data on their PDAs. If you have a mobile device with sensitive data, it has to be secure. We have seen too many incidents where PDA's go missing or stolen only for hackers to use information stored on the device to break into networks or steal money."
The Mobile Usage Survey 2005 was conducted among 73 IT managers, 34% of them from companies with over 1,000 employees.
