Mobile device theft leaves IT managers red-faced

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 7 Jul 2003 at 10:52

Nearly three in four companies have no security policy for mobile devices, meaning the blame for security breaches resulting from theft will lay at the door of the IT manager's office.

The PDA Usage Survey 2003 has found that one quarter of those polled had lost a mobile device - most commonly (40 per cent) in a taxi. Yet 50 per cent have not insured the device and only two per cent have insured the data on it.

Yet for the 73 per cent of companies lacking any security policy to deal with mobile device usage, staff that jump out of a taxi leaving their unprotected PDA on the back seat can claim ignorance by law - the finger of blame will point at IT managers, for not having taken 'reasonable' security precautions.

Magnus Ahlberg, MD of Pointsec Mobile Technologies, the company that commissioned the survey, said
'The survey shows that people are now clearly using their PDAs as a business tool, but are unaware of the serious implications should their PDA end up in the wrong hands. It takes merely seconds to synchronise information from a PDA using a laptop or PC if it is unencrypted and not password protected. Alternatively, with the development of Wireless Lan technology, a competitor or hacker could just sit in the coffee bar next to your office and get access directly into your corporate network. Therefore it is imperative to encrypt all information held on PDAs.'

Indeed, the information staff are leaving on a PDA could easily result in a security breach if stolen. One third of staff using company PDAs are leaving sensitive business information, contact details, passwords and PIN numbers unencrypted and not even protected by a simple password for access.

Many users download large portions of corporate data to take with them on their mobile device, and 57 per cent do so without encrypting it. Forty-one per cent use these devices to access their company network, with a quarter of these having their PDA configured to bypass any login passwords.

A third of those polled described themselves as IT director or IT manager.