Smartphone theft affects most organizations

Did you ever consider that keeping sensitive business files on your mobile device could be risky, as your device could be lost or 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 percent of organizations believe a member of their senior management has lost a mobile device in the last year, whilst 39 percent say senior management had a device stolen.

The numbers are no better among non-executives: 54 percent of organizations say a non-senior management employee lost a device, while 49 percent 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 percent) of these devices contained work related data, including confidential emails (49 percent), confidential files or documents (38 percent), customer data (24 percent) and financial data (15 percent), yet basic security rules are not being implemented.

Nearly a third (32 percent) of organizations do not specify that devices taken outside the office must be protected with either encryption or passwords, and a quarter (25 percent) 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 percent) admitting that they cannot keep track of how employees take data with them, and 54 percent saying that data could be more adequately secured.

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