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.
