US smatphone users lack basic mobile security

BOSTON, USA: A new survey shows U.S. consumers are shockingly lax about basic security on their mobile phones.

Most of us have no qualms about making purchases via mobile, and the vast majority of us use the same phone for business and personal use -- two common vulnerabilities in web security.

Yet in spite of these yellow flags, few of us use phone-locking passwords and duplicate the same passwords for mobile apps that we use on our desktops.

The survey in question comes from security firm AVG and research and consulting firm The Ponemon Institute.

One key finding we mentioned was the crossover between business and personal use of the same device. Around 84 per cent of consumers use the same smartphone for both professional and personal tasks. In those cases, if the user's phone ever becomes lost or compromised, the amount of risk is automatically doubled, since both kinds of private and confidential data could be accessed.

(Source: Mashable)