Workers May Be Biggest Threat to Mobile Security

By Tony Kontzer | Posted 2014-05-07

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Who Owns Work Phones?

58% of employees surveyed use their own phones for work, while 42% use company-owned phones.
Levels of Privacy

71% of respondents believe that some mobile data is private, while 20% think all of it is.
Disposable Data

69% said that most or all of the data on their phones is replaceable. Only 6% said none of it is.
Most Important Phone Data

Work email: 41%, Personal contacts: 40%, Work contacts: 39%, Corporate logins: 36%, Work Files: 34%
Perceived Value of Work Phone Data

Less than $500: 59%, $500 to $999: 13%, $1,000 to $2,999: 10%, Over $3,000: 18%
Priceless Personal Data

While 60% of respondents value their personal phone data at less than $500, 16% described their data as "priceless."
Clueless

39% of respondents said that either their employer doesn't have a policy covering lost phones, or they're not aware of one.
Don't You Dare

94% of respondents believe that employers who leak personal data should be punished in some way.
It's Not My Job

25% of them said mobile data security is not their responsibility, so they should not be punished for losing data.
Steps Taken After Phone Loss

Contacted service provider: 29%, Contacted IT: 25%, Got new device: 16%, Used tracking to locate: 11%, Changed work passwords: 8%, Changed personal passwords: 4%
Lost Opportunity

57% of respondents who lost a phone said they didn't change their security habits as a result.
No Consequences

34% of those who'd lost their phone said there were no consequences, and 21% merely "got a talking to."
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With more workers than ever accessing sensitive work data on their mobile devices, it would seem that protecting data in a BYOD (bring-your-own-device) environment would be a top priority. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Mobile security provider Absolute Software recently released the results of a survey, conducted in November, 2013, of 750 U.S. employees who use their mobile devices for work, and these disturbing findings surfaced: Nearly one-fourth of the workers didn't even know if their company had policies to deal with lost phones. Almost one in six consider their personal data priceless, but none of the respondents characterized work data that way. In addition, more than one-third of those who'd lost a work phone said they faced no consequences as a result. What's more, nearly three out of five respondents who had lost phones said they didn't even change their security habits as a result. Clearly, it behooves employers to do a better job of communicating just how critical it is to protect the data residing on mobile devices. "If firms don't set clear policies that reflect the priority of corporate data security, they can't expect employees to make it a priority on their own," says Tim Williams, Absolute's director of product management. "Clear policies, articulated properly to employees, will ensure that the entire company, not just IT, unites against mobile data loss."

Tony has been writing about the intersection of technology and business for more than 20 years and currently freelances from the Grass Valley, Calif., home where he and his wife are raising their two boys. A 1988 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism and regular contributor to Baseline since 2007, Tony's somewhat infrequent Twitter posts can be found at http://twitter.com/tkontzer.