Is 6 out of 10, good or bad?

trojanI happened to be in Jersey this past weekend, playing football.  It turned out to be a frustrating weekend, not necessarily because of the football. My SmartPhone could send and receive emails, I could browse the internet, but for the life of me, I could not make a simple telephone call. I tried every conceivable setting, to no avail. So, I resorted to having to borrow a ‘phone from the other guys in the team – with the promise of drinks in return.  I  had the happy experience of using a variety of Blackberry’s, an iPhone, and whole host of Nokias. Which leads me to this article from the BBC website.

It reports that 6 out of 10 people use a password on their ‘phone. That got me thinking: is 6 out of 10 good or bad? Now, based on my experience over the weekend of constantly borrowing ‘phones, I think it is quite good. Most of the guys in my football team seemed to have the key-guard feature enabled, but scant evidence of passwords, never mind encryption. So, based on the experience with my teammates, 6 out of 10 is pretty good. What also struck me from the research quoted by the BBC, is that there is a lot of valuable information on our ‘phones. Nearly a quarter of people survey said they stored PIN numbers and passwords on their ‘phones.

So, until it is 10 out of 10, we cannot be complacent. The vast majority of people use a password to control access to their PC: they need to think about their ‘phone in the same way.

March 19, 2009 | Filed Under Security 

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