Speaking at a business strategy session today at Infosecurity Europe in London, Julie Steele, head of fraud, risk and security for Vodafone UK, conveyed the distinct security risks that mobile devices pose for organizations. Citing data from a recent Symantec survey, Steele told the audience that 70% of security breaches are accidental, which includes lost or stolen mobile devices, such as smartphones.

Moreover, the number of users who will access data via mobile devices will only increase, claimed Steele, as the mobile working environment helps to increase productivity while also improving the work–life balance of employees. However, with these benefits come the increased physical security risks and data loss possibilities as a result of misplaced mobile devices.

The vast majority of security breaches are not the result of malicious intent Steele said. “We believe that users are 15 times more likely to lose a smartphone then they are a laptop”, the Vodafone representative declared. “The London Transport Network tell us that over 100 000 mobile devices are left on their buses and trains every year.”

This is just one of the contributors to the huge uptick in data breaches that was noted in 2008–09 by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, which said that data loss incidents nearly doubled during that time period.

Steele told Infosecurity that the greater likelihood of data loss through mislaid or absconded smartphones is a logical phenomenon. The notion, as she asserts, makes perfect sense. “I just guess that a laptop, being a bit more bulky, is a whole lot harder to steal or lose than a smartphone”, Steele explained.