While few people have antivirus software or VPNs for their personal phones, new research suggests that work mobiles are the most easily exploited technology.
A blog by security researchers Lookout says the 58% of UK workers who have accessed customer or employee data on their work phones are putting their company at risk because they don’t have the right protection.
The biggest problems
- Using work phones for Facebook or to share unencrypted personal information
- An out of date OS that you’ve not updated
- Giving many apps access to your contacts – even if you don’t need to
- Accessing work docs, customer records or billing details on your phone – that isn’t protected in the same way as on a computer.
Smartphones are just as easy to hack as any computer. They are normally linked to open email accounts, social media accounts with pre-saved passwords or company documents which are not password-protected.
GDPR coming May 2018
This GDPR is basically a new law about data security passed by the European Council in 2016 and slated to come into full force by May 2018.
To give it its full title, it’s the General Data Protection Regulation.
Brexit may or may not affect whether UK companies have to comply with this law, but as of December 2017 it looks very much like UK law will be in “regulatory alignment” with the EU wherever it suits Theresa May’s government, in order to get a trade deal signed and delivered.
Leaders to lowly at risk
Whether you are simply of a cog inside a vast machine or the CEO of the company, you’re at threat of exposure.
31% of top-level executives in the US say their work mobiles have been hacked or compromised.
And 84% of IT security personnel say that personal data access on employee mobiles could put their company at risk.
The best thing to do for companies to secure their data is to invest in antivirus, backups and a VPN to use across all their devices.
See all the top VPN reviews here
MAIN IMAGE: Lookout