IT professionals neglect security on mobile devices
15 January 2006
A third of professionals using
mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones don't use passwords or any other
security protection and yet three out of ten of these users store their PIN numbers, passwords and other corporate information on
them. That's according to The Mobile Usage Survey 2005, conducted for the
fourth year by Pointsec Mobile Technologies and SC Magazine. The results are
even more staggering considering the survey was conducted amongst IT
professionals, who should be more knowledgeable about security than the average
employee.
The results are also significant for the health and social care sectors
as many professionals, from clinicians to social workers, are starting to
use PDAs, tablet PCs, laptops and other devices for communications and to
access patient information.
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. 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 you to fraud, embarrass your friends or wreck your
personal life, the survey revealed.
Since the survey was first
introduced 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. Seventy eight 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 81%
using them to store business names and addresses, 45% to receive and view
emails and 27% store corporate information. Fifty nine percent also use
their devices as a business diary and 14% use them to store information on
their customers.
According to the survey, more
people than ever are losing their mobile devices. Last year just 16%
had lost one, this year it has increased to 22%. Of those that did lose
their device, 81% 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".
Travelling with your mobile
device still appears to be the most likely way to lose it, 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 40% 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.
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:
- Personal names and addresses:
86%
- Business names and addresses:
81%
- Telephone: 71%
- Business diary: 59%
- Personal diary: 55%
- Receive and view emails: 45%
- Entertainment - games, music
etc: 37%
- Passwords/PIN numbers: 37%
- Personal images
(photographs): 33%
- Corporate information: 27%
- Bank account details: 15%
Rene Millman, Online and UK News
Editor for SC Magazine said: "I can't believe that so many people wouldn't
think to secure data on their PDA's. 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, with 34% coming from companies employing
over 1,000 employees.
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