http://pictures.directnews.co.uk/liveimages/man+on+mobile_1071_18277150_0_0_6700_100.jpg

No more than 12 per cent of major organisations are properly monitoring what sort of data staff store on mobile devices and 68 per cent of IT managers are worried that a mobile data security breach is a growing possibility over the next five years.

According to a new survey commissioned by Mformation, a mobile device management firm, 78 per cent of chief information officers (CIOs) are concerned about the security of data kept on mobile devices, particularly as much of it is sensitive information concerning the business and its customers.

Furthermore, six per cent of the surveyed organisations admitted that they had suffered lost or stolen mobile devices containing important information within the last six months.

Matt Bancroft, vice president of Mformation, noted: "The number of mobile devices is reaching critical mass in many enterprises and CIOs everywhere are becoming aware of the threat they pose to corporate security and compliance.

"Loss of these devices doesn't just mean lost data, it can potentially be seriously damaging to a company's reputation and can result in regulations being breached."

With traditional network perimeter security being opened up by wireless and mobile devices, a new study by research firm Aberdeen revealed that 71 per cent of top firms have increased the number of encryption keys used to protect data since last year.

Research for Connect in 2007 found that 88 per cent of UK businesses were interested in Disaster Recovery systems primarily to protect their critical applications and data.