Smart Phones and Loss of Data

I was with a client this week in London, and while going through the requirements for transition to ISO 9001:2015, the revised quality management Standard we were visited by the Police. 

No they weren’t coming to get me (or the Client); they were advising local businesses that there had been a number of instances where phones had been snatched from people in the street.  Apparently this has reached almost 100 cases this year alone. The thief riding a scooter or small bike rides up behind the person and snatches the phone from the users ear and then rides away.

Most phones are protected by a pin, but the savvy thief can get round this. A better method is some form of fingerprint or face recognition authentication or better still two factor authentication, where the user enters a password and then must enter a unique one-time code before the phone is useable.
Many companies now allow email and server access through smartphones so the loss of one of these is not only inconvenient but could allow unauthorised access to company systems.

Of course the best way is not to use a phone in the street or look around to see if you are alone before using it but as we all know the number of people with their hands up to their ears with phones is enormous.

Our own phones are complete with software that allows us to remote wipe the phone; this protects the company computer network but does little for the budget when having to purchase new phones.