Mobile Phone Usage Patterns, Security Concerns, and Security Practices of Digital Generation

Mobile Phone Usage Patterns, Security Concerns, and Security Practices of Digital Generation

Sonya Zhang (College of Business Administration, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, USA) and Saree Costa (College of Business Administration, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, USA)
Copyright: © 2021 |Pages: 19
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8545-0.ch026
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Abstract

As the digital generations have grown up with high-tech gadgets and become avid users of mobile phones and apps, they are also exposed to increasing mobile security threats and vulnerability. In this paper the authors discuss the impact of recent mobile technology advancements on mobile threat environment and mobile security practices. They also conducted a survey to 262 college students to examine their mobile phone usage patterns, security concerns and practices. The results show that students use their mobile phone frequently for various productivity and entertainment purposes. They are generally aware of and concerned about mobile security, not only on losing the phone physically but also on data theft, web threat, and mobile malware. Students also practice security to some extend - most change PIN and passwords regularly, download their apps mostly from official app stores, and generally keep their OS and apps up-to-date. The authors also found significant correlations between mobile security practices and personal attributes, including major, gender, and technology aptitude.
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2. Mobile Threat Environment

Mobile threat can come from multiple sources. Couture (2010) broadly classified mobile threats into three categories: 1) threats resulting from the physical nature of small and highly portable mobile devices, 2) threats stemming from their ubiquitous connectivity and 3) threats originating with the prevalence of mobile software applications and malware.

2.1. Physical Loss or Theft

Physical loss or theft of the mobile device can result in not only the loss of personal information but also copies of corporate data stored in email retrieved via mobile apps. As many of the lost phones will be found by individuals who have no interest in compromising the data within, it will be a good practice to include a contact telephone number or address labeled on the device, but not give away the personal identifiable information or the organization name. Assuming a subset of those who find lost devices are at least somewhat interested in the data, screen login pins and max-attempt lock out policies will become useful. A smaller subset of thieves may have the skills and motivation to attack the device with specialized software or techniques, sometimes even bypassing the screen lock. This reinforces the important need to encrypt valuable phone data, as well as to enable remote erase of phone data, either automatically after a certain amount of failed login attempts or when the lost phone becomes unlikely to be retrieved.

The physical Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card inside the mobile phone used to connect to network may hold subscriber data, contact list and SMS messages and should be considered in mobile security policy. Devices should be managed such that data on these SIM cards are either encrypted or non-essential.

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