Leave your laptop or personal handheld at home when you join the Christmas rush and revelry or risk losing your mobile device and all the information that resides on it. This is the advice that mobile security expert Pointsec Mobile Technologies offers corporate clients, based on research that it conducted this year in the "Mobile Usage Survey".
The survey found that 25% of people have already lost a laptop or PDA and this is likely to increase during the Christmas crush with potentially dire consequences such as having your identity stolen, tarnishing your reputation, or worse still, allowing a hacker to breach your company`s network.
In the build up to Christmas, your chances of losing a mobile device are even higher than normal due to overcrowding:
* In the stores where everybody is Christmas shopping and you are laden down with bags.
* On the trains and buses as more people leave their cars due to limited parking spaces, drink driving or congestion charges.
* At the banks and post offices as people need more money as it gets closer to the end of the year.
* In restaurants, bars and clubs as people celebrate at the Christmas party.
According to the survey, you are most likely to lose your laptop or PDA in the back of a taxi on the way home from the Christmas party or after a big shopping expedition, as this is where a quarter of people report losing their devices. The next most dangerous hotspot is the venue itself with a fifth reporting that they have lost a device in a bar, restaurant or nightclub.
As if waking up after the Christmas party with a severe hangover, or spending all your hard-earned cash is not bad enough, imagine the feeling when you can`t find your laptop or PDA and realise it`s been lost or stolen along with the entire details of your personal and corporate life. A third of PDA owners commonly download onto their devices, bank account details, PIN numbers, credit card information, social security numbers, business and personal names and addresses. Many have this information residing on their PDAs without adequately securing this information with a third not using passwords and 57% not bothering with encryption.
By joining in the Christmas festivities this year and not adequately protecting this information, you could be in grave danger of becoming another statistic and exposing all your data to a thief, opportunist, hacker or competitor.
Worse still, identity theft is now at an all time high and if an unprotected laptop or PDA is stolen and contains all your personal and corporate details, it could enable someone to steal your identity. A victim of identity theft will find that it takes them a frustrating 300 hours to put their records straight.
Magnus Ahlberg, Managing Director of Pointsec, says: "We do not want to be kill-joys this Christmas, just bring to people`s attention that mobile devices frequently get lost or stolen when people are sober, let alone when they have had a few drinks at the Christmas party, or just out and about caught up in the everyday Christmas rush. Often people do not address this problem until it is too late and they have experienced the disaster of losing valuable information. Therefore, we would suggest that if your mobile device is not adequately protected with passwords or encryption, leave them at home or under lock and key."
One last thought, if partying or shopping without your mobile phone seems almost inconceivable, remember to keep it in a safe place or face the consequences as 40% of people have already lost a mobile phone.
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Pointsec Mobile Technologies AB is a wholly owned subsidiary of Protect Data AB. The company develops and markets access-controlling and encrypting systems for stationary and portable computers, palmtop computers, WAP telephones, etc. Pointsec Mobile Technologies has 47 employees and offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Washington DC in the USA, Cambridge in the UK, D"usseldorf in Germany and Stockholm, Falun and Sundsvall in Sweden. Visit our Web site at www.pointsec.com.
The Protect Data Group
The Protect Data Group offers tailor-made IT security solutions to large companies and organisations. The company focuses on four business areas: digital identities and resource security, network security, anti-virus and content security, and consultancy services for information security. Within these areas, the company offers comprehensive IT security solutions based on aspects such as access control and encryption systems, anti-virus systems, digital sentry services, firewalls, user identification and content control, secure VPN and PKI solutions, digital signatures and systems for secure transactions. Protect Data is the market leader in its business area in the Nordic region and has subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the UK and the US. Protect Data has approximately 100 employees and is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Visit our Web site at www.protectdata.com.
Condyn
Condyn is a South African based company that is the distributor for Pointsec Mobile Technologies. Condyn concentrate on best breed of security products distribution through channel partners in SA and Africa. Visit our Web site at www.condyn.net.
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