According to survey of 300 senior IT staff, smart phones pose more of a threat to business security than laptops, largely due to user mentality; for one reason or another, many smart phones just don’t seem to be getting the protection their lap dwelling counterparts might.

While 4 out of 10 (that’s it?) IT guys were encrypting the crucial stuff on company laptops, 9 out of 10 smart phones had access to the company network without any security past what is inherently part of the protocol, and 81% of those purportedly had no access restrictions at all. Sure, there’s no such thing as the perfect lock – but even a basic password might keep Joe Commonthief from digging around before getting frustrated and trashing the device.

All of these statistics — including the laptop encryption rate — are worrying, to say the least. Having to type in an extra password or two can be a pain, but it’s a lot better than having to tell all of your customers that their private data just got jacked because some executive didn’t want to punch in his cat’s name a few times a day.

Photo Credit: CarbonNYC