Am I surprised that many 'IT Security Professionals' appear to have had a common-sense bypass when it comes to the security of their own mobile devices? Nah, not really. Look, we already know that 88 percent of web users are morons and 93 percent of IT Admins are idiots so why should IT security pros be any different? The Mobile Usage Survey from endpoint data outfit Credant suggests that this particular group is suffering from password fatigue when it comes to their business smartphones.
Apparently some thirty five percent of those asked revealed they had not ye got around to using a password on their business phone or smartphone, despite also admitting they knew they should do in order to protect the confidential information contained upon the devices. In fact, according to this survey at least, IT professionals are "only marginally better at using passwords than the general population." Which is kind of worrying, given just how crappy the average password actually is.
The worst culprits when it comes to mobile security within their companies seem to be the sales teams who really suck at it, closely followed by the board of directors and senior management. And the best? Well the survey reckons that Human Resources best manage to keep their mobiles aligned to the corporate mobile security policy.
Andrew Kahl, Co-Founder of Credant Technologies told me "It is alarming to note that the very people who are responsible for IT security are not much better at protecting the information on their business phones than most of their co-workers, who don’t necessarily know any better. If a mobile or smartphone goes missing and isn’t protected with a password, and contains business names and addresses and other corporate data such as business emails, then the company is immediately in breach of the data protection act by failing to meet some of its principals on electronic data."