Businesses Vulnerable Due To Sloppy Smartphone Care

Did you ever consider that keeping sensitive business files on your mobile device could be risky, as your device could be stolen? Did you consider protecting those files, or the mobile device in general, with a password?

A new research by Imation looked into this idea and the results are quite disappointing. According to the study, 44 per cent of organisations believe a member of their senior management has lost a mobile device in the last year, whilst 39 per cent say senior management had a device stolen.

The numbers are no better among non-executives: 54 per cent of organisations say a non-senior management employee lost a device, while 49 per cent reported a device stolen within the past year.

Vanson Bourne conducted the survey of 500 IT decision makers in the UK and Germany.

A vast majority (93 per cent) of these devices contained work related data, including confidential emails (49 per cent), confidential files or documents (38 per cent), customer data (24 per cent) and financial data (15 per cent), yet basic security rules are not being implemented.

Nearly a third (32 per cent) of organisations do not specify that devices taken outside the office must be protected with either encryption or passwords, and a quarter (25 per cent) does not specify that digital files taken outside the office must be protected with either encryption or passwords.

Companies are failing to control how data leaves the office, with nearly half (48 per cent) admitting that they cannot keep track of how employees take data with them, and 54 per cent saying that data could be more adequately secured.