LONDON, UK: Recently, Major search engine Google's CEO Eric Schmidt's commencement address to the University of Pennsylvania graduates had urged to stop the excessive usage of PCs and phones to make human connections. Schmidt had said that humans are the most important things not the other aspects.

But in the era of technology machines are replacing humans in every aspect, even in bed-rooms!

A recent survey conducted by Credant Technologies said that over a quarter of UK employees are so work obsessed they can't resist using a mobile device such as a laptop in bed before they go to sleep, even to the much annoyance of their partners.

The survey discovered that of those people who do work in bed, 57 per cent do so for between 2 and 6 hours every week, little wonder that the survey also found that the majority of their bed companions found their partners' obsession with their mobiles "a very annoying habit".

A staggering 8 per cent of people admitted that they spend more time on their mobile devices during the evening than talking to their partners!

Security-Wise

People have started becoming so obsessed with their device that leave apart their partners, they are not even bothered even about the security concerns.

According to the survey almost half the respondents, about 44 per cent admitted they are holding important work documents on their mobile devices of which 54 per cent were not adequately secured with encryption.

This will sound alarm bells for the many in-house IT departments who are tasked with trying to secure an ever increasing mobile workforce who are using data on the move and consequently losing more unsecured data than ever before.

Additionally snooping neighbors or even malicious infiltrators could hack into the devices that are being used in bed, as a fifth of people are not using a secure wireless network as they busily tap away under their duvets.

Michael Callahan, vice president at Credant Technologies explains, "This survey confirms that there is a growing population that is no longer restricted by working hours or confined to the office building itself. People are mobile and will work anywhere - even in bed. Therefore, when sensitive and valuable data is being held on these devices and they get lost, it can have pretty detrimental and far-reaching consequences to both the worker and their employer."

He added that with increasing pressures on companies to comply with regulations, such as the Data Protection Act, we all have to respect our customers and employers by protecting the data held on our mobile devices, where ever we may be.

The most favored way to connect to the Internet, and subsequently back to the office, whilst lying in bed is via a wireless network for 87 per cent, said the survey.

Disturbingly, almost a fifth of people spoken to are using a wireless network that they know is insecure, with 56 per cent down/uploading company information.

When staying in hotels, people are happy to connect to the hotel's wireless network, expecting the hotel to ensure it's secure. 47 per cent admit that they do so without even considering the security implications.

The survey, "Laptop use in bed and the security implications" was conducted amongst 300 city workers who were interviewed to determine whether the UK has become a nation of work obsessed, laptop dependent, key tappers and to highlight the security implications of unsecured mobile devices.