Research published by Goode Intelligence suggests that 40% of organisations are planning to encrypt data on employees’ mobile phones from September 2010 onwards. The figure comes from the company's Mobile Security Survey, carried out in partnership with Acumin Consulting.
The survey also revealed that nearly 43% of organisations felt the threat from mobile phone data loss was currently low, although the perceived threat is increasing – just 29% of respondents said the risk would still be low in 2011, while 29% forecast that the risk would be 'medium' and 28% felt the risk would be 'high' or 'very high'.
Alan Goode, Managing Director at Goode Intelligence, said "The threat of data loss from a mobile phone is still relatively low but with the rising adoption of data-centric applications on smartphones, including enterprise applications and financial services, we feel that the threat will rise from the second-half of 2010 onwards. Research for the new GI Analyst Report on Smartphone Security has discovered that enterprises still do not feel that the threat to company data stored on mobile phones is high enough to warrant protection in the same manner that a laptop or a USB memory stick is. Only 33% of organisations polled are protecting their mobile phones with encryption products and services. However, you can now store gigabytes of information on mobile phones that is as business critical as the information that employees are storing on their laptops or USB memory sticks."
The survey is available to download free of charge after registering at the Goode Intelligence website.