Despite the attention given to this year's countless data breaches associated with lost or stolen mobile devices, thousands of mobile users continue to inadvertently leave behind their electronic devices in taxi cabs, according to a new survey regarding mobile security released today. Sponsored by Pointsec Mobile Technologies, the survey found that during the past six months, nearly 12,000 electronic devices were left in taxi cabs in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay (3,106 devices) and Washington, D.C.-Baltimore (8,701 devices) areas.

"When we first commissioned this survey more than five years ago, we thought it would be an interesting way to demonstrate to businesses how vulnerable their confidential data was, once it left the confines of their offices on a laptop, PDA or mobile phone," said Marty Leamy, president of Pointsec Mobile Technologies. "This year, however, the many high-profile data breaches due to lost or stolen laptops have made this security problem clear to most organizations. Looking at these results now, we are reminded that lost mobile devices are just a fact of life, even though we now understand the potential consequences for our confidential data. The question for corporations is not what happens if we lose a piece of equipment, but what happens when we suffer a loss."

Surveying 85 taxi cab companies in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay and Washington-Baltimore areas, the study examined how many mobile phones, PDAs/Pocket PCs and laptops were left behind in taxi cabs over the past six months, and how many of the devices were eventually returned to their owners. The results show a staggering amount of lost computing equipment, especially mobile phones and PDAs. The study also found that, on average, 50 percent of passengers in the two cities are business clientele, meaning that many of these lost devices could have held confidential business data.

"With all the attention on laptop security, these survey results are a good reminder of how easy it is to lose small devices like mobile phones and PDAs. Now that handhelds are growing in data storage capacity, which could include sensitive information and email, it is becoming more critical for corporations to extend their security policies to cover them," added Leamy.

Some key results of the survey included:

• Mobile phones are lost the most frequently, with 6,102 being lost in taxis in the Washington-Baltimore area and 2,754 being lost in taxis in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay area in the past six months.
• While most owners are reunited with their mobile phones eventually, they are the least often reclaimed devices.  In the Washington area, 80 percent of mobile phones were eventually returned to their owners, while 65 percent were reclaimed by owners in the San Francisco area.

"It is good news that most of the lost devices were eventually returned to their owners. However, simply recovering the lost equipment may not be enough for all organizations," said Leamy. "Corporations and government agencies need to know what happened to their sensitive data while it was out of their hands. Without proper safeguards and data encryption, it may be impossible to tell whether the information was improperly accessed before the lost equipment was returned."

via phonemag