Loss of mobile devices at airports increases risk of identity theft

Travellers who have lost mobile devices such as phones and notebook PCs at British airports face real security risks, warns a new study.

Pointsec Mobile Technologies , which offers security software for mobile devices, said its study showed that because many people can't be bothered to trek to the lost property office at airports, these lost devices are auctioned after three months.

The company's survey, released today, found that up to half the people who have lost a mobile device while traveling through the UK's airports prefer to claim from their insurance company.

Because one in four of these devices have no security on them, personal information such as passwords and bank details can end up in the wrong hands.

Staff at lost property offices said they found no problem switching on these devices and gaining access to owners' personal information.

The study, Mobile Device Security at Airports, found that at Heathrow airport alone, five notebook PCs and 10 mobile phones are handed in every day. With just six in 10 being reclaimed, Heathrow airport auctions around 730 lost notebooks every year and 1,460 mobile phones.

Peter Larsson, Pointsec's chief executive, said the problem is partly because mobile devices are now increasingly affordable and easy to replace; but people forget about the growing problem of identity theft.

"Often people do not realise how valuable their information can be to others such as hackers, competitors or thieves, " Larsson said. "Most people keep personal and customer details on their mobile devices.

"With ID theft at an all-time high with an estimated 100,000 people a year affected, costing in the region of £1.7bn in the UK alone, those people who do lose a mobile device at an airport should think twice about whether they should take the time to reclaim it, otherwise it will be auctioned with the contents freely available to whoever buys it at a public auction."

Recently, the threat of fraudsters in Nigeria being able to get hold of bank details of thousands of Britons from recycled computer hard drives was raised.

The Pointsec survey also looked at our counterparts, both consumer and business, in other countries.

Other Europeans are more eager to reunite themselves with their notebook PCs but, like the Brits, are not too bothered about tracing their mobile phones. In Sweden every lost notebook was reclaimed, except at the main airport at Arlanda where 75 per cent were claimed.

The Australians were also pretty keen to reclaim their notebooks, with an almost 100 per cent reclaim rate in the four airports which were surveyed. But bizarrely in Brisbane, of the mobile phones that are handed in every week, absolutely none have been reclaimed.