Mountains of Mobiles Left in the Back of New York Cabs
Credant Technologies announced the results of a survey today that shows passengers in Taxi's in New York City have left behind 31,544 mobile phones and over 2,752 other handheld devices like laptops and iPods.
The study also reports Taxi drivers say that 44% of passengers in the cab spend their time catching up on work, on the phone or sending email. Almost 2/3 of NYC cab drivers report that owners get their devices back. In London, about 80% of passengers in cabs get their items back.
"We've become too complacent about losing personal information. This is a warning to the business community and individuals to be vigilant when travelling with mobile devices especially as more people are using the latest range of "must have" mobile smartphones to store large amounts of sensitive personal and business information," stated Michael Callahan, Chief Marketing Officer at CREDANT Technologies.
Research shows that almost 31,544 mobile phones have been left in New York Yellow Cabs in the last six months DALLAS, Sept. 16
The survey was carried out at the same time in both
"We've become too complacent about losing personal information. This is a warning to the business community and individuals to be vigilant when travelling with mobile devices especially as more people are using the latest range of "must have" mobile smartphones to store large amounts of sensitive personal and business information," stated
"Many of these devices now have the capacity to store as much as 10,000 Word documents, 11,000 pictures, 500,000 contact details or an amazing 1.1 million emails, making them an obvious target for identity theft criminals and hackers who can steal this information and assume the identity of the user both in their personal or business life."
Nearly two-thirds of cab drivers reported that mobile phone owners were reunited with devices found at the back of cabs. In
"It is clear that none of us are infallible. It's easy to forget things when you're travelling -- it used to be an umbrella, now it's more likely a mobile phone or and other storage device that contains highly sensitive information," Callahan said. "It's only when you've lost a mobile device containing your personal information and contacts, or your company's data, that you really understand how disastrous it can be. Our advice is to encrypt all information on these devices to prevent access by anyone other than you."
Not just mobiles forgotten ... but a sawn-off shotgun, a couple of kids, 12 dead pheasants, 2 dogs, 1 cat, toilet seats and more ...
When the cabbies were asked to recall what the strangest objects were that they'd found at the back of their cabs they reported that it wasn't uncommon for people to leave their most precious possessions, including their kids, a drunken wife left as a tip,
Notes to EditorsThe survey figures were based on 300 New York yellow licensed taxi drivers and extrapolated amongst 13,087 yellow licensed taxi cabs in
About CREDANT Technologies
CREDANT Technologies is the market leader in endpoint data protection solutions. CREDANT's data security solutions mitigate risk, preserve customer brand and reduce the cost of compliance, enabling business to "protect what matters." CREDANT Mobile Guardian is the only centrally managed endpoint data protection solution providing strong authentication, intelligent encryption, usage controls, and key management for data recovery. By aligning security to the type of user, device and location, CREDANT permits the audit and enforcement of security policies across all computing endpoints. Strategic partners and customers include leaders in finance, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, technology, and services. CREDANT has been recognized by Inc. magazine as the #1 fastest growing security software company in 2008 and 2007; was selected by
For more information, visit http://www.credant.com.
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SOURCE CREDANT Technologies
