| Stolen PDAs provide open door to corporate networks A survey has found that corporate data could be compromised as a third of employees are leaving business information and access details unprotected on their PDAs. This not only provides easy pickings for common thieves, it also provides an entry key to corporate systems for opportunists, hackers or competitors. The PDA Usage Survey 2003 commissioned by Pointsec Mobile Technologies and conducted by Infosecurity Europe and Computer Weekly has found that PDA owners commonly download the entire contents of their personal and business lives onto their handheld computers - with many leaving the information unencrypted and without password protection. Sensitive information commonly stored unprotected on PDAs includes corporate information, bank accounts, credit cards, social security numbers, inland revenue information, business and personal names and addresses, with a third also storing their personal passwords and PIN numbers without using the PDA's password function to protect this information. Forty one percent are using their PDA to access their corporate network with a quarter of them bypassing the password function. Fifty seven percent do not encrypt the corporate data held on their PDA making it relatively easy for an unauthorised person to use the PDA to access a corporate network and assume the identity of the user. The most notorious place for losing a mobile device such as a phone, laptop or PDA is a taxi (40 percent) closely followed by bars, restaurants and nightclubs (20 percent). 25 percent of people surveyed had lost a laptop or PDA or both. www.pointsec.com
•Date:
7th July 2003 • Region: UK
•Type: Article •Topic:
ISM
|
