Audits & Investigations - technology and expenses made simple
Bookmark and Share A&I
Blog    |    Newsletter Archive    |    Resources    |    About A&I    |    Contact
  • IT/Telecom Leadership
  • IT/Telecom Operations
  • Finance Leadership
  • Finance Operations
Home > Security, mobility, wireless > The Cost of Losing Your Phone: Symantec Smartphone Honey Stick Project

The Cost of Losing Your Phone: Symantec Smartphone Honey Stick Project

May 22nd, 2012 bob Leave a comment Go to comments

This is an interesting study: What would happen to your personal and corporate information that sits on your smartphone if you lost it? Answer: at least 89% of the time someone would want it. They took 50 smartphones, loaded them with fictitious information, and placed them in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in various public places. Then they monitored how the information was being accessed. It’s called the HoneyStick Project and is sponsored by Symantec and Sprint.

Consider what’s on your phone. Everyone you speak to, where you work, and who you work with. Where you live, shop, eat, and bank. Where you’ve been in the last 6 months. Every text you’ve sent and received. Emails, both personal and professional, as well as their attachments. Pictures, videos, and other potentially embarrassing items. Files that contain handy references including passwords. How about the latest project you’ve worked at your job. Imagine that out in the wild and potentially be used against you or your company. Think your boss would be unhappy with having that big deal compromised?

Here’s some highlights of what they found: (It goes without saying that virtually all phones were accessed even if to find the owner.)

  • 89% had personal information accessed (see above for all the goodies you’d be offering)
  • 83% had company information accessed
  • 45% of the time company emails were accessed and files named ‘HR Salaries’ were hit 53%
  • 43% of online banking accounts were attempted to be accessed

It’s not all bad news. There are some helpful tips on how to protect your phone. You can even make it unusable. We don’t like to think of our phones as bricks, but given the choice between having yourself violated or having to cough up another $500 for a new device; it’s a pretty good trade-off. The simplest way to protect your phone is a to use a pin, better yet, set the phone to totally lock up and erase the data after a number of attempts (set it for 10 to be on the safe side). This will stop probably 70% of the finders to begin with. Use some of the other tips and you could drop your liability to about 10% and if it’s a corporate phone with some kind of MDM (Mobile device Management)  software, you could make it 100%.

Remember, these little devices combine two conflicting things: lifestyle convenience and lots of critical data. The more convenient these devices are and how easy they make life, the more liability they provide, as well as an incentive to obtain them. Be smart and read the study.

Tags: Android, AT&T, corporate, iPad, iPhone, MDM, Mobile Device Management, mobility, Security, Sprint, Symantec, Verizon
Comments (0) Trackbacks (1) Leave a comment Trackback
  1. No comments yet.
  1. January 7th, 2022 at 22:09 | #1
    3unequivocally
Subscribe to comments feed
Microsoft Surface Will Impact Laptops More Than Tablets Update – Could There Be A New Mobile Data Cost Model Coming?
RSS  |
  • Google
  • Youdao
  • Xian Guo
  • Zhua Xia
  • My Yahoo!
  • newsgator
  • Bloglines
  • iNezha

Categories

  • Expense Management (17)
  • Industry Related News (8)
  • Lifecycle Management (11)
  • mobility (12)
  • Network Service Providers (3)
  • Research (5)
  • Rumors (2)
  • Rumours (1)
  • Security (1)
  • wireless (2)

Tags

Aberdeen Group Anchorpoint Android AOTMP app AT&T Best In Class BlackBerry BlackBerry OS BusinessWeek Contract negotiation cutting telecom costs FCC Gartner Google Industry Average iPad iPhone Job Cuts Laggards Landlines Limiting wireless data mobility networks open source OSx RFP RIM Skype smartphones Sprint Support T-Mobile Telcom Lifecycle Management Telecom Expense Management Telecom Layoffs Telecom RFI Telecom RFP TEM TLM Verizon webOS Windows Mobile wireless wireless data plans

Recent Comments

  • 2somewhat on Could There Be A New Mobile Data Cost Model Coming?
  • 1craters on Listen Up! Podcasts You Can Learn From
  • 2voltage on Update: Aberdeen’s Quick Fixes to Cut Telecom Costs
  • 2institutional on Dubious Numbers – 36% is Average for Telecom Contract Savings
  • 3unequivocally on The Cost of Losing Your Phone: Symantec Smartphone Honey Stick Project

Archives

  • October 2012 (1)
  • June 2012 (1)
  • May 2012 (1)
  • March 2012 (1)
  • February 2012 (2)
  • December 2011 (2)
  • March 2010 (3)
  • February 2010 (5)
  • January 2010 (1)
  • December 2009 (4)
  • November 2009 (1)
  • October 2009 (2)
  • September 2009 (2)
Top
Copyright © 2009-2013 Ask A&I
500 Millers Run Road, Suite 203 Morgan, PA 15064
Phone: 412.221.4228 - Email: info@auditsandinvestigations.com