SMEs put at risk by poor mobile security practices

A new report finds that 35 percent of small business employees or owners report clicking on a phishing link via mobile.

The research, carried out by OnePoll for CyberSmart, among 250 small-medium enterprise business owners or leaders in the UK also finds 30 percent of respondents report losing or having had stolen a mobile phone containing sensitive corporate information, leaving their business more vulnerable to potential cybercriminal activity.

"These results are obviously a concern for SMEs and their employees. Large organizations are more likely to implement security awareness training for mobile devices and implement a code of conduct for corporate devices. This is not a luxury afforded to most SMEs, who do not have the resources or time to do so," says Jamie Akhtar, co-founder and CEO at CyberSmart. "It is the responsibility of the cybersecurity industry to change this, and to make security more accessible for the small businesses which make up 99 percent of the UK economy."

This comes hot on the heels of an earlier report showing that smaller businesses often lack polices to cover the use of mobile devices for work.

Among other findings of the latest research are that a quarter of respondents admit connecting a mobile device used for work to a public charging station (e.g., at an airport or café), and 36 percent of respondents have worked from a public WiFi network on a mobile device. A further nine percent admit to forwarding corporate data to a personal account, and 11 percent own up to storing corporate passwords or login credentials on a mobile device without encryption.

You can find out more on the CyberSmart site.

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