'Secure your mobile phones'

As mobile phones become a part and parcel of our day-to-day life, sloppy handheld habits like storing corporate data, bank account details, private and personal details without giving much consideration to security has become a rising trend.

According to the Mobile Usage Survey 2005, conducted for the fourth year by Pointsec Mobile Technologies and SC Magazine, a third of the professionals using mobile devices like PDAs and smartphones do not use passwords or other security protection. Yet three out of ten of these sloppy handheld users store their PIN numbers, passwords and other corporate information on them.

The results are even more startling considering the survey was conducted among IT professionals who are 'hopefully' more security savvy than the average employee.

According to the survey, personnel now store huge amounts of corporate data on their mobile devices and a lost PDA or smartphone with no protection are easy pickings for common thieves, opportunists, hackers or competitors. It could help them steal your identity and get at your corporate information. The ramifications of these could be a huge impact on customer confidence, because 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.

The survey says awareness of the risks of storing unencrypted data on a handheld is still surprisingly low and needs to be improved to prevent security breaches. Some 78 per cent of users do not encrypt the information on their PDA or smartphone though sensitive personal and valuable corporate information is being stored on these devices with 81 per cent using them to store business names and addresses, 45 per cent to receive and view emails and 27 per cent store corporate information. About 59 per cent also use their devices as a business diary and 14 per cent use them to store information on their customers.

According to the survey more people than ever before losing their mobile devices, last year just 16 per cent had lost one, this year it has increased to 22 per cent and of those that did lose their device 81 per cent had not encrypted their information. They admitted 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, losing their device will cost them money and they will lose "everything" as they had not 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.

When people do lose their mobile device only 40 per cent inform the police as the rest do not 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 would not be able to function without them, however, with so much information stored on them it is 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.

The most common functions for the PDA and smartphones are to store personal names and addresses "" 86 per cent, business names and addresses - 81 per cent, telephone "" 71 per cent, business diary"" 59 per cent, personal diary - 55 per cent, receive and view e-mails - 45 per cent, entertainment "" games, music and others - 37 per cent, passwords/PIN numbers - 37 per cent, personal images (photographs) - 33 per cent, corporate information - 27 per cent and bank account details -15 per cent.

The Mobile Usage Survey 2005 was conducted among 73 IT managers, with 34 per cent coming from companies employing over 1,000 employees.