One in ten peoples' bank accounts could be accessed if they lost their personal digital assistant (PDA), according to new research commissioned by Pointsec Mobile Technologies and Infosecurity Europe.
The PDA Usage survey interviewed 322 IT and sales personnel online. The research reveals PDA owners commonly download confidential information - such as PIN numbers, passwords, and bank account, credit card or social security details - onto their mini portable computers, with many leaving the information unencrypted and without password protection.
Results of the survey show 65 per cent of people who store their bank account details on their PDA do not bother to encrypt this information with just under a quarter not password protecting this information.
Magnus Ahlberg, managing director of Pointsec Mobile Technologies, says: "The survey shows that people are using their PDAs as portable mini filing cabinets, storing every essence of their personal and business lives on them and yet oblivious to the fact that without password protection anyone can access this information...It takes a thief merely seconds to hotsync information from a PDA using a laptop or PC if it is unencrypted and not password protected."