As the Olympics’ draws nearer, people all across the UK are starting to prepare for the festivities and the upheaval that comes with hosting a major sporting event. Whilst certain businesses look forward to the extra revenue that the visiting spectators will bring, others need to safeguard their devices during the two month period.
According to a Freedom of Information Act request to Transport for London over 4,500 mobile devices were lost during the summer period last year alone. This means as over 5.5million extra visitors flock to the capital to watch the games, the need to secure mobile devices such as mobile phones becomes crucial.
Results show that as the number of visitors grow, there is a risk that a further 2,840 mobiles, 231 USBs and 121 laptops will be lost. This means that countless amounts of data will be lost as well, which could potentially cost businesses and consumers a fortune and create long lasting issues.
For this reason, device owners should take specific steps to protect their assets and implement remote access solutions that can manage and resolve this risk. Good examples of this would be to utilise centrally managed solutions such as MobilIron’s Mobile Device Management or Vmware’s Horizon Mobile platform, as each gives IT access and control to the corporate data & IP on a remote device, which if necessary can be locked down or remotely wiped if compromised.
By implementing such security and back-up solutions, any lost device is simply that, a lost device. Through taking action now, the potential threat of over 3,000 additional lost devices full of data turning up in the Transport for London’s lost property box or worse a stranger’s pocket will be eliminated.
Without doubt the Olympics will bring disruption to the capital this summer, however whilst people can’t do anything about the millions of extra visitors and congestion, simple measures can be taken to ensure everyday life isn’t disrupted and devices are more secure, so they aren’t left feeling the consequences after the final ceremony on the 9th September.
