Symantec Honey Stick Project: What Happens to a Lost Phone

Jack

Administrator
Thread author
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 24, 2011
9,377
Softpedia said:
Security solutions provider Symantec devised a clever experiment called the Smartphone Honey Stick Project, designed to help individuals and security experts learn about what happens to lost smartphones and how much private data their finder tries to access.

A number of 50 smartphones, fitted with fake corporate and personal information, were “dropped” in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Ottawa. To ensure that someone finds them they were placed in elevators, food courts, malls and public transportation stations.

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On the bright side of things, half of the people who found the phones attempted to give them back to their owners.

On the downside, the less optimistic figures show that 6 out of 10 individuals who found the devices tried to access the owner’s social media and email information. Moreover, 8 out of 10 tried to take a peek at corporate information that was strategically stored in files named HR Salaries, or HR Cases.

That’s not all. The Remote Admin application that was installed on the phone led the finders to believe that they could remotely access a computer or a network. Those who think no one would go that far are wrong because half of the people that came across the smartphones tried to run the app.

The exposure of corporate data could have serious consequences for a company, but for consumers is just as bad. Private pictures, social media, email and even bank accounts were accessed by the individuals who stumbled upon the devices.

This is precisely why experts recommend that companies make and enforce strong security policies regarding the use of personal mobile apparatus.

Read more : http://news.softpedia.com/news/Symantec-Honey-Stick-Project-What-Happens-to-a-Lost-Phone-258097.shtml
 

MrXidus

Super Moderator (Leave of absence)
Apr 17, 2011
2,503
An interesting project by Symantec.

If the smartphone user has a few functioning brain cells and cares about their smartphone, Install an anti-theft app, There are many great apps both free and paid for Android and iPhone users.

Take the recent Cerberus giveaway that happened. Avast Mobile has anti-theft and that is a completely free app based off TheftAware.

JypDD.jpg

My Cerberus control panel.

There is no excuse not to take safety pre-cautions, Especially if it involves the exposure of corporate data for businesses and for consumers, private pictures, social media, email and bank accounts.

Lazyness = Karma will come back and bite you when you least expect it.

Better to be safe than sorry etc.

Thanks. :rolleyes:

- A fellow Android Cerberus user.
 

jamescv7

Level 85
Verified
Honorary Member
Mar 15, 2011
13,070
Most of the Anti Theft application have a feature of remote delete so in case someone will grant the access could be erase with a command.
 
V

Vextor

Nice test Symantec, really shows how much you really need an anti-theft application on your phone, or better yet, simply don't put private data on your phone.
 

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