Anyone who loses their mobile phone should expect the data to be accessed by the person who finds it, and business data is no exception, according to a study released this week by security firm Symantec.In its Smartphone Honey Stick Project, Symantec "lost" 10 phones in each of five cities, leaving them on top of newspaper boxes, in food courts, and even the ladies restroom of a Chinese restaurant. In all but one instance, people who found the phones accessed the devices, with 83 percent of people accessing one or more of the four business applications, including two human resources files, corporate email, and a remote administration tool. More than 4 out of 10 people even accessed the banking application on the device.
...two simple security measures can protect the data on devices...
• While complex passcodes are best, using even a simple four-digit code would protect the devices from casual access.
• Installing a remote management tool to remotely track the device can help to quickly recover a lost phone. Most device management tools also allow users to remotely delete the data on the device, a hedge against a more tech-savvy data thief. (more)
