Related: 10 facts about Mobiles you might or might not know
By Ben Robinson on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 1:10 PM PST In Research, The Digital Life
Following from my last post about the Mobile Security Challenge launched in the UK, check out these interesting (and in some cases alarming) stats about Mobiles:
1. 4 billion mobile phones are in operation worldwide (source: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE51A2I820090211)
2. There are twice as many mobile phones as credit cards in the world (source: http://www.gizmag.com/orange-near-field-mobile-phone-payment/11216/ )
3. There are 70 million mobile handsets in the UK, of which 4.2 million are vulnerable to ID theft. (source: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/newslog/UK+Market+Tops+70+Million+Vodafone+Leads+Subscriber+Growth.aspx )
4. 80% of mobile phones contain enough data to commit identity fraud (source: http://www.securitywatch.co.uk/2009/03/18/phone-data-makes-42-million-brits-vulnerable-to-id-theft/ )
5. 40% of users have no password or PIN securing their phone. (source: http://www.securitywatch.co.uk/2009/03/18/phone-data-makes-42-million-brits-vulnerable-to-id-theft/ )
6. In the UK 16% of people carry their bank details and 24% carry their passwords and pin numbers on their phones (source: http://www.securitywatch.co.uk/2009/03/20/brits-naive-about-mobile-phone-security/ )
7. In 2006, two per cent of mobile users, 800,000 people, were victims of phone theft, (source: http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/statistics/statistics065.htm )
8. TFL and O2 (NYSE: TEF) have already teamed up to combine Oyster cards and mobiles with swipable phones – and 85% liked the system. (source: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/6592.aspx )
9. German supermarkets have introduced a barcode scanning system enabling shoppers to store their shopping list in their phone and speed up time at the checkout. (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7476672.stm)
10. Japanese phone giant NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) is set to launch a new mobile phone feature making house keys, and cash, redundant. (source: http://www.techjapan.com/Article674.html)
Wowzer! When you look at the combination of volume of targetable devices, and the info on-board them, no wonder they are such a hot (and unsecured) commodity! PIN-code your moby now methinks!
