Tag: UK mobile security

As the number of cyber attacks over traditional computers, smartphones, and tablets grow, this is worrying.

Technology news reports are continually announcing the latest massive cyber attacks and data breaches, but this doesn’t seem to be having much of an impact on many people in the United Kingdom, as a new survey has shown that many are not taking mobile security all that seriously.

It would be expected that these headlines would cause the average users to take protective measures.

However, this does not appear to be the case. The survey was conducted on behalf of ZenMate by OnePoll. It involved the participation of 2,000 respondents from the United Kingdom. What it determined was that there is an overall apathy present among smartphone users when it comes to their own mobile security. Fewer than half of the people who were surveyed said that they take any action to ensure that they are using protected connections or that they secure their browsing data when using their smartphones.

Over 45 percent said that they didn’t even take the basic mobile security step to use a password to lock their devices.

Without even using a smartphone password to lock the device, if that gadget is ever stolen, the thief would be able to gain instant access to any apps, contacts, or other personal data contained within the mobile device. This is quite surprising, when taking into consideration all of the attention that is being received by the prevalence of cyber attacks, overall.

Moreover, with reports that suggest that the GCHQ and the NSA have been monitoring online communications, it would be easy to assume that smartphone users would want to take a few extra steps to remain protected against data theft and other related threats. The results of this survey, however, clearly indicate otherwise when it comes to the typical British smartphone using consumer.

Only 41.5 percent of the survey participants said that they took precautionary mobile security measures, even when asked about their habits when using unsecured public networks. This aligns well with a recent Ofcom report that indicated that people don’t usually think twice about their privacy when they access public WiFi connections.

A new UK consumer survey reveals that most British mobile users are not concerned about security.

The survey from internet security company, ZenMate, carried out by OnePoll, found that many UK smartphone users are rather apathetic when it comes to mobile security, which may come as a surprise to some, considering one would think that the average mobile user would find it important to protect personal and sensitive data on their device, especially with the number of cyber attacks on the rise.

Less than half of the survey respondents said they protect their phone’s browsing data or connections.

The survey, which had 2,000 participants from the United Kingdom, also discovered that over 45% of those who participated admitted that they do not even implement basic security measures for their devices, such as using a passcode lock. In other words, if their smartphone was lost or stolen, the thief or whoever finds their phone would be able to gain instant access to their apps and other information.

Furthermore, only 41.5% of participants said they take precautionary measures when using their mobile phone for online browsing and when using public networks that are unsecured. To further back up this finding, a recent report by Ofcom revealed that, on average, people do not typically think twice about security when accessing public Wi-Fi.

According to University of Warwick Professor Harjinder Lallie, setting up rouge access points is fairly simple. He added that “Because this is so easy to do, it’s a major problem is that most people don’t make the most basic checks about the access point they are connecting to –such as ‘is this a secure connection?’ and ‘does it belong to whom it claims to belong to?’”

Only 35% of participants said mobile security is their top concern when browsing online.

Of the survey respondents that made up the 18-24 age group, while 35% said privacy was their major concern when surfing the web via their smartphone, 44.6% said that speed is more important to them than privacy. Moreover, 77% said they regularly use unsecured public W-Fi.

The co-founder of ZenMate, Simon Specka, said that with so many people using public Wi-Fi, it means that more consumers are increasing their risk of opening themselves up to cyber criminals, and most of them are completely unaware of it. He added that if consumers want to access unsecured networks via their mobile device it is prudent to have mobile security protection.