Smartphone Durability
You love that new iPhone 6, but will you be able to hold onto it? Your chances are far better if you are a woman, a recent Harris Poll found.
(Associated Press file photo)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Quick, reach for your smartphone.
If you are a woman, chances are it is within grasp. If you are a man, you may still be looking for it, according to a recent Harris Poll.
The poll found that 46 percent of men admitted to being likely to lose smartphones, tablets, laptops or other portable device they used for work, including those providing access to important company data. Only 27 percent of their female counterparts said they were likely to lose such devices. Younger workers were even more apt to lose equipment. Sixty-percent of men 18 to 34 said they were likely to lose such gadgets, contrasted with 30 percent of women in the same age group.
The poll offers a look at more than just forgetful, or even, irresponsible employees. Company data being compromised as a result of employees losing equipment is an increasing and expensive problem for businesses.
"The financial impact is more than just losing the hardware," said Kornelius Brunner, head of product management for TeamViewer, the IT company based near Stuttgart, Germany, with an office in the Tampa Bay area, that had the Harris Poll done.
The loss of mobile devices can be costly for employers, according to a 2010 study of 329 employers by the Michigan-based Ponemon Institute, which researches privacy, data protection and information security. The study found that a lost laptop cost an employer an average of $50,000. The figure included every thing from replacing equipment to lost productivity to data breaches. Based on the private and public employers surveyed -- which ranged from under 1,000 employees to 75,000 - combined loses amounted to a whopping $2.1 billion.
A survey the Ponemon Institute released in 2013 of 671 IT and IT security practitioners found that 80 percent of them believed that laptops and other mobile devices, such as smartphones, posed a significant security risk to companies because the data accessible through these devices is often not secured.
TeamViewer had the Harris Poll done since an increasing number of employers allow company files to be accessed through mobile devices, said Axel Schmidt, TeamViewer's public relations manager. The company develops and provides software aimed at curtailing on-the-job data loss, including products providing remote monitoring and IT asset tracking. Its encryption products make it difficult for employers' files to be compromised should a mobile device be stolen.
"The motivation was simple," he said of the reason for the survey. "We figured we wanted to find out more about workers' behaviors, and how they impact potential data loses. Since we are coming out with our new product, we figured we needed to do more."
The poll didn't probe why men were more likely to lose portable technology. However, Schmidt and Brunner offered their theories -- some even presented in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.
"It is kind of a status symbol for men," Schmidt said. "Who has the hottest new phone? Who has the fastest laptop computer? Men are more likely to show-off stuff like that."
Perhaps so busy showing off their gadgets, that they forget and leave them behind.
"Having said all of that, we have no scientific data to back all of that up," Schmidt added, with a chuckle.
The survey also deals with risky behaviors employees engage in that could potentially compromise company data. Schmidt believes men are more prone to engage in risky behavior.
"It is probably just worked into our genetics to be a little more careless with things like that," he said.
But both science and anecdotal evidence can back up another of Schmidt's theories. Men aren't as good as women at multitasking. So, if men are forced to juggle more than a few things, it's feasible they can't remember to hold onto smartphones, tablets and laptops, he said.
Brunner said his observations about how men and women handle smartphones may offer a clue as to why men are more apt to lose the devices.
"I see a lot of men walking around with a mobile in their hands, and putting the mobile on the desk or on the table in the restaurant," he said. "Women throw everything in a purse."
In fact, restaurants were the second most often place employees lost devices, the poll showed. The survey didn't break responses to this question down by gender.
These were the places people were most often to lose devices:
- Cars, 15 percent
- Restaurants, 13 percent
- Hotels, 13 percent
- Trains or buses, 11 percent
- Airplanes, 10 percent
Perhaps rapid and bus riders in Greater Cleveland do a better job than those surveyed of holding on to portable devices on public transportation. About 10 cell phones a week, left behind on RTA trains and buses, are turned into the lost and found, said Linda Scardelli Krecic, RTA media relations manager. Of course, the figure only represents devices that are turned in, which may -- or may not -- be an indication of those actually lost.
She said because most of these devices don't give an indication as to the gender of the owner, it is difficult to know if men more frequently left behind such devices.
Few laptops land in the lost and found, Krecic said. With cooler weather upon us, here is something for many to consider: she said more cell phones are turned-in in colder weather.
The Harris Poll looked at potential security issues and data loss beyond mobile devices. The results were similarly troubling.
More than one-third -- 37 percent -- of employees at companies with staffs of between 101 and 500 admitted to engaging in activities putting company files at risk. Employees at smaller businesses put their employers at lower risk. Only about a quarter of workers at companies with 50 or fewer employees engaged in risky behaviors.
The most common things employees did to put their companies at risk, included:
- Failing to lock computers when leaving their desks, 16 percent
- Clicking on links from unfamiliar senders, 10 percent
- Sharing passwords, 10 percent
- Viewing questionable content on a company computer, 8 percent
- Failing to store information on the server, 5 percent
The Harris Poll found that employees are also concerned about data loss. Fifty-four percent said they were frustrated by job-related electronic mishaps.
Among the top sources of frustration were:
- Power failure just as they've finished working on something important, 31 percent
- Not being able to find a file they know they have at work, 26 percent
- Lost company files they've worked on, 23 percent
- Replacing a lost electronic device they use for work, 13 percent
- Lost company files on a lost electronic device, 11 percent.
The online survey of more than 2,000 adults was conducted Aug. 4-6. A margin of error cannot be calculated since the survey was not based on a probability sample, according to the Harris Poll.