Password-Free Phones Pose ID Theft Threat

Take your company's most sensitive documents, shove them in a plastic grocery bag and walk outside in a rainstorm. This will make you as effective at corporate secrecy as one-third of IT workers, when it comes to safeguarding their phones.

According to a survey of 227 IT professionals, a majority of whom are employed by large companies, a devil-may-care 35% don't use passwords on their business phones. This wouldn't merit a mention if the survey, conducted by London-based security firm Credant Technologies, hadn't also found that 80% of its respondents kept clients' contact information on their phones.

Coupled with the 23% who keep work e-mail and 12% who keep calendars on their smart phones, IT workers have become walking file closets - and companies want the keys back. ...