Pointsec Mobile Technologies, provider of enterprise security software for laptop and desktop PCs, PDAs and smartphones, today published results from a survey on the use of removable media among IT professionals.

The survey is conducted for the second year in a row and shows that the number of IT professionals who use USB memory sticks, digital media players and external disks, has doubled compared with last year's results.

The survey this year was conducted amongst 248 IT professionals in the United Kingdom (many of whom are IT security managers). Over 66 percent of those who use removable media have no security policy for removable media. Over 65 percent are aware of the security risk associated with that kind of media that could easily get lost or fall into the wrong hands.

56 percent of the surveyed are using their mobile storage devices to store corporate information such as contracts, proposals and other business documents. 22 percent use them to store their customer's name and addresses. Three percent store passwords and bank account numbers on removable media. Most of them, 70 percent, use removable media to store downloaded music files.

Only 21 percent have some security in place on their media, such as password protection or encryption. 12 percent are banning the use of removable media in the company.

The use of mobile devices and removable media such as USB memory sticks has increased enormously, not only in the home but also at work. The devices are small and cheap but they are ticking security bombs if they're not secured properly, said Peter Larsson, CEO of Pointsec. The importance of securing removable media has increased after the implementation of legislation frameworks such as Sarbanes Oxley and Basel II.

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