Losing a Company Mobile Device – What’s the Big Deal?
Last updated on August 17, 2021
The above question could be said to apply for most company employees who believe that losing a company mobile device is not much of a big deal since the company can easily afford to buy them a new one. Therefore, why should they look after their mobile devices as if they were their own? Okay, fair enough a company may be able to afford to buy a new mobile device for its employees but what happens to all the data that is stored on these devices? And what happens if these devices fall in the wrong hands?
This way of thinking has brought the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) to reach a new record on losing corporate devices. In the past 3 years, employees of BBC have apparently outdone themselves when it comes to losing corporate property. The property lost amounts to a total of more than 750,000 British pounds!! Unbelievable as it may seem! One may wonder ” How many devices have they lost in order to reach such a sum?” Well, here are the numbers for you:
- Total number of devices lost: 785
- 399 laptops estimated at £598,000
- 347 mobile Phones estimated at £104,100
- Finally 39 tablets estimated at £58,500
Out of these 785 mobile devices, 347 mobile phones were lost in 2012 compared to 259 in 2011, which shows an increased rate for these devices. What is even more concerning regarding the loss of these devices is that the personal – or even worse – the corporate data on them is now vulnerable. The BBC is currently being investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to examine whether or not there have been any breaches in the Data Protection Act.
No Corporation is Immune to Mobile Device Loss
You may say that the BBC is a large organisation that employs a large number of people therefore the above sums are an exception. Even so, these incidents are occurring more and more often. Not even the Metropolitan Police Service has escaped this up and coming “trend” of losing devices. The Metropolitan Police Service has lost 809 devices, during the same period of time:
- 649 mobile phones
- 24 laptops
- 136 PDA’s
Both the BBC’s and the Metropolitan Police Services cases are living examples of the huge need for corporations to employ a Mobile Device Management solution regardless of the size of the organisation. The loss of corporate mobile devices can lead to bad public exposure, loss of personal and corporate data and a breach of corporate security. I cant think of many people that would like to be put in such a situation. Can you?