Smartphone loss outweighs malware risk

A new study by McAfee finds that the risk of losing a smartphone (and the associated confidential and proprietary data on the phone) is greater than the risk of losing data through malware. The study found that 4 in 10 organizations had already lost data due to smartphone theft or loss.

This study may help explain why there's less concern with malware picked up from browsing the web, and why many organizations have yet to implement web security for mobile devices like smartphones. With greater risk coming from the physical loss of the device, many IT departments are already struggling with ways to keep the physical device safe and secure, and securing the web browsing on a smartphone has fallen to second place in the realm of security issues.

Part of the problem is many organizations do not have policies around smartphones, like they do around PCs and laptops, and that may be the first step to addressing this problem, and one that can help move them towards looking at securing the web access as well.