IT professionals callous about mobile security: Survey

Now-a-days most of us wouldn't be able to function effectively without mobiles. However, with so much information stored on them, it's essential to secure them. The advice of the experts is secure it, or don't use it!

- Dilip.

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Source: Business Line, Nov 24, 2005.

[By Pratap Ravindran, Pune]

A THIRD of IT 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 sloppy handheld happy users store their PIN numbers, passwords and other corporate information on them, according to the results of The Mobile Usage Survey 2005, conducted for the fourth year by Pointsec Mobile Technologies and SC Magazine.

Pointsec Mobile Technologies AB, founded in 1988, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Protect Data AB, publicly traded on the Stockholm stock exchange, and the worldwide de facto standard for mobile device security.

The company is introducing in India a range of enterprise security products which ensures the integrity of intellectual property stored on laptop and desktop computers and mobile computing devices.

The survey, conducted worldwide among 73 IT managers, with 34 per cent coming from companies with over 1,000 employees, says that corporate personnel store huge amounts of corporate data on their mobile devices, such as customer contacts, e-mails, 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.

Consequently, a lost PDA or Smartphone with no protection makes easy pickings for thieves, hackers or competitors and could enable them to steal identities and get at corporate information. This could have a huge impact on customer confidence and cause an organisation to breach data protection legislation or a company's reputation. "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 per cent 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".

According to the survey, more people than ever before are losing their mobile devices: Last year, only 16 per cent had lost their mobile devices, while this year the percentage has increased to 22.

Mr Martin Allen, Managing Director of Pointsec, has been quoted as saying: "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 among IT professionals who are far more security savvy than most other handheld device users. Our advice is secure it, or don't use it!"

Says Mr Rene Millman, Online and UK News Editor for SC Magazine,"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 PDAs go missing or are stolen only for hackers to use information stored on the device to break into networks or steal money."

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