Lost and stolen smartphones — A personal (and professional) nightmare

It’s hard to remember what life was like before smartphones. But it’s amazing to think about how rapidly they’ve changed our lives, both personally and professionally.

In fact, according to Pew Research survey data, 90 percent of U.S. adults owned a smartphone in 2023. That number was just 35 percent back in 2011. These ubiquitous devices are connected to almost every aspect of life, from our physical fitness and our social calendars to our finances and our work. As a result, lost and stolen smartphones can trigger panic and fear in an owner. The inconvenience of not having our smartphone is underscored by the fact that it contains our most prized possession — our data.

Recently, I stopped by a local store to buy some groceries. When I picked up a shopping basket, I found an Apple iPhone lying at the bottom. I immediately took the phone to customer service knowing the owner would be returning soon to look for it. Yet I couldn’t help but think about what might have happened if someone else had stumbled upon it. Some individuals would take the phone and quickly sell it online to smartphone recyclers for $100+. Others might try to access the data on the phone … or find a buyer interested in doing so for much more nefarious purposes.

For many businesses, their data is also on these devices. In today’s post-COVID environment, OfficeRnD research indicates 28.2 percent of full-time employees work a hybrid model, compared to 12.7 percent of full-time employees who work from home. As a result, the widespread use of personal devices in the workplace has become incredibly common, with 87 percent of companies relying on their employees using personal mobile devices to access company apps and 60 percent of today’s employees using such apps for work-related tasks. While the implementation of mobile devices can be a boon to productivity and flexibility, it has also led to an increase in data security problems in cases of lost or stolen smartphones, tablets and laptops.

According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, while breaches stemming from lost and stolen smartphones, tablets and laptops represent a small fraction of overall breaches, a whopping 91 percent of assets lost or stolen caused a confirmed breach! Given the potential consequences, how do IT and security departments sleep at night knowing the risk they run if they don’t have systems and processes in place to protect their businesses?

Fortunately, savvy organizations are investing in best-in-class unified endpoint management (UEM) tools to simplify the process, without sacrificing employee productivity or happiness. Is yours?