London taxi’s lost property:
190,000 mobile phones, the chief of NATO’s briefcase and an inflatable banana
Internet
security provider ESET has carried out a survey of London taxi drivers which has
revealed that 190,000 mobile phones are left in the back of the city’s taxis
every year, highlighting the need for businesses and individuals to back-up,
encrypt and password protect their devices in the event of it falling into the wrong
hands, and the data being stolen, compromised or abused.
There
are around 24,000 black cabs in London and the study found that a taxi driver
finds an average of eight mobile phones in the back of their cab every year;
this ultimately means that Londoners lose a staggering 520 mobile phones in
taxis every day and 190,000 every year. However other somewhat more worrying findings
from the study revealed that half of the devices found in taxis are completely unlocked,
meaning anyone who finds the phone is able to gain access to the confidential
information it holds.
Commenting
on the findings from the study, Mark James, security specialist at ESET, said:
“Today we use our mobiles for a multitude of tasks, whether it’s our online
banking or connecting to corporate email systems, and we do not want our
devices to fall into the wrong hands. Our study shows that despite the huge
publicity cybercrime receives in the media today consumers still do not see
themselves as a real target. This is naïve and wrong. Cybercriminals are well
aware of the fact that our mobiles contain connections to corporate networks
and sensitive information and they will take advantage of this. Consumers
should as an absolute minimum use a password to protect their device in case it
is ever lost, however a good security posture would include encryption and a
remote wipe facility.”
The
most jaw dropping findings from the study were revealed when cabbies were asked
about the most unusual things they had found in the back of their cab, some of
the most astonishing items included:
§
The chief of NATO’s briefcase
§ An
inflatable banana
§ A dog
§ 400 packets
of jelly
§ £100,000
worth of Stocks and Bonds
§ For one
rather unfortunate taxi driver - a pair of false teeth
In
addition to this, when taxi drivers were asked what they did with any phones
they found in the back of their cabs 61 percent said they waited for the owner
to call, 25 percent said they handed it into the police and 14 percent said
they contacted the owner. Other findings revealed that:
§
68 percent taxi drivers would not have a snoop around the phone if they
found it unlocked
§
99 percent of taxi drivers revealed they could not unlock the device if
they found it locked
§
24 percent of taxi drivers said that despite them not being able to open
an unlocked phone, they were confident their kids / nephews would be able to
“While
our study has proven just how honest taxi drivers are, sadly not everyone who
finds a phone will take the same approach. I imagine the majority of people who
find a phone will actually have a look around and see if there is anything of
any interest or value to be found. What people need to start asking themselves
is – could any of the data held on my mobile compromise me either personally or
professionally if it fell into the wrong hands? If the answer is yes, which I
expect it will be, then security on your mobile device must be a priority, not
an afterthought,” continued James.
* This research was carried out at the
taxi rank at London King’s Cross station and studied the attitudes of 300 taxi
drivers.