How Safe is Your Smartphone?

Consumer protection, Technology

How much information are you carrying around in your purse or back pocket? If you have a smartphone, probably a lot. These days we can use phones for almost everything: banking, credit card payments and purchases, email, pictures, storing corporate data, and logging into social networking sites. If your phone is lost or stolen it can be replaced, but the information on the phone may be the greater loss.

Most smartphones have a built-in security feature that enables the device to be “locked”–the user must enter a password or PIN to access any of the phone’s data or functions. However a recent study found that only 25 percent of smartphone owners used auto-locking features.

What Happens If Your Phone Is Lost or Stolen?

Symantec, a security software company, recently conducted an experiment that might make you think twice about what information you keep on your phone. They filled 50 smartphones with pictures, contacts, personal and corporate documents, financial information, and online banking applications. The phones weren’t locked or password protected, but were equipped with the company’s tracking software. Then the phones were “lost” in taxicabs, buses, restrooms, malls, and food courts, around Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Ottawa, Canada.

The phones were set up to make the “owner’s” information easy to find, but only half the phones were ever returned. Meanwhile, because of the tracking software, Symantec’s security specialists could watch what happened to these phones. They collected data for a week, logging when and where attempts were made to access any of the phone’s data.

Finders Keepers

Although in half the cases, the finder of the “lost” phone attempted to contact the owner and make arrangements to return the phone, this doesn’t necessarily mean you have a one-in-two chance of your data being safe. Even the people who returned the phones tried to access information on them; off 50 phones, there were only two that had no attempt made to access information.

Of course, the finder might have perfectly innocent reasons for poking around in a lost phone. Maybe they are trying to locate the owner or any identifying information. On the Symantec phones, this information was purposely made obvious, with a contact labeled “Me” prominently featured.

Who Is Looking at Your Pictures?

Even so, most of the people who eventually returned the phones, along with virtually all of those who did not, looked far past the contacts information. It might have started innocently as an attempt to track down the owner, but whether it was curiosity or malicious intent, the results of the experiment were clear:

  •  Eight out of 10 finders tried to access corporate information, including files clearly marked as “HR Salaries” and “HR cases.”
  • Seven in 10 finders attempted to access photos.
  • Six out of 10 finders attempted to log in to Facebook or personal email using log-in and password information stored on the device.
  • A “Saved Passwords” file was accessed on 57 percent of the phones.
  •  Half tried to run an application labeled as “Remote Admin,” simulating access to a remote computer or network.
  • 45 percent attempted to access a corporate email client.
  • 43 percent tried to access an online banking application.

Symantec points out that this doesn’t necessarily mean everyone wants to steal your information. The point is that many people are naturally nosy, and if the opportunity to poke around in someone’s life presents itself, many of us will jump at the chance.

Don’t Be an Open Book

If your phone is lost, you might get it back, but chances are the person who returns it to you knows a lot more about you than you’d like. The lesson to take away here is that we have to protect our mobile devices. The good news is that it is really not that hard to do.

Another point: when you’re out and about, make sure your phone remains on or near your person. Don’t set it down in the bathroom stall or on top of a paper box so you can dig around in your bag. It also can’t hurt to add a stickers or a colorful case that will allow you to easily tell your phone from other similar models.