Lost PDAs betray company secrets

Keep hold of that little bit of kit - it could cost you more than the replacement fee...

The act of losing your PDA can take a fraction of a second. Simply turn your back on it for a moment in the pub or put it down while you pay a taxi driver and it can be gone. Whether it is carelessness, forgetfulness or theft, the bottom line is that you've lost your device and at the very least a copy of your data. This problem is made all the worse given 54 per cent of respondents to a silicon.com survey confessed to storing sensitive company information on their PDAs. And while we would like to think we are capable of keeping these gadgets safe, a worrying 12 per cent of respondents admitted to losing at least one PDA. While that may not sound staggering, it equates to a vast amount of PDAs at large. This year alone IDC predicts around 11.35 million PDAs will ship worldwide. It is incredible to think that - assuming similar levels of loss internationally - as many as 1.36 million of these will go astray during their short but eventful lifetime. This also equates to a vast amount of sensitive information which could easily fall into the wrong hands. After all, how happy would you be telling the boss you'd lost a PDA containing that year's accounts and your company's entire client list? While increasingly mobile ways of working can vastly improve a company's productivity it should certainly not be at the cost of security. We'll be bringing you more on PDA security and management over coming days. silicon.com is launching a a new-improved PDA service which means you no longer have to be in front of your PC to find out what is happening in your industry. With silicon.com on the go you will be up-to-date before you even step foot in the office.