Even IT security pros can’t be bothered with passwords

IT security professionals admit that they are suffering from password fatigue when it comes to using their mobile devices, which leaves their data exposed to personal and corporate identity theft if these devices were to fall into the wrong hands. That’s according to a survey released today by Credant Technologies, who conducted the “mobile usage survey” amongst 227 IT professionals with the majority drawn from companies that employ more than 1000 people.

35% percent revealed they just don’t get around to using a password on their business phones and smartphones, even though they know they should as they contain sensitive and confidential information!

Surprisingly, IT professionals are only marginally better at using passwords than the general population, as a survey conducted earlier in the year found that 40% of all users don’t bother with passwords on their mobile phones.

The sorts of information that IT professionals are storing on their smartphones and mobiles, many of which are totally unprotected with a password, include:

• 80% Business names and addresses
• 66% Personal names and addresses
• 23% Business emails
• 16% Personal emails
• 12% Bank account details
• 12% Business diary with details of all their appointments and meetings
• 7% Personal diary
• 5% Credit card information
• 4% photos
• 1% Passwords and Pin numbers.

According to the IT professionals surveyed, the worst culprits at addressing mobile security within their companies are typically the sales teams, followed by the board of directors and senior management. HR comes out as the best at keeping their mobiles aligned to the corporate mobile security policy.

The survey also found that a third of IT professionals use their own personal mobile phone for work purposes even though the company specifically bans them for business use with almost a fifth spending more than an hour or more per day on their own personal phone for business purposes.