There’s a good chance you’ve got at least a few employees who use their smartphones to access company data. If so, these findings will probably cause quite a bit of concern.
Researchers over at the security firm Symantec recently did a study aimed at discovering what people would do if they stumbled upon a lost smartphone.
Symantec researchers intentionally “lost” smartphones that were loaded with simulated sensitive personal and corporate data and apps to remotely monitor just what would happen to the lost mobile devices.
Researchers wanted to answer two questions:
- Would the individuals who found the smartphones try to return them?
- Would they try to access any of the data that was put on those devices?
What the Symantec study uncovered was more than just a little disheartening: Only half of the individuals who found the smartphones, actually tried to return them. What’s worse, 96% of the finders actually tried to access the data on the phones.
To make sure your employees are protected, you may want to check in with IT to make sure all staffers’ smartphones are password-protected, and that your company has the ability to remotely wipe data away in the event a phone is lost or stolen.
