Study: Many Consumers Don't Secure Their Mobile Devices

Many consumers in the United States don't take the steps experts recommend to secure their mobile devices. Pew Research reported the findings of a recent survey:

"More than a quarter (28%) of smartphone owners say they do not use a screen lock or other security features to access their phone. And while a majority of smartphone users say they have updated their phone’s apps or operating system, about 40% say they only update when it’s convenient for them. Meanwhile, some users forgo updating their phones altogether: Around one-in-ten  smartphone owners report they never update their phone’s operating system (14%) or update the apps on their phone (10%)."

And, there are differences by the age of phone owners:

"owners ages 65 and older are much less likely than adults younger than 65 to use a screen lock and regularly update their phone’s apps and operating system (13% vs. 23%). Smartphone users 65 and older are also more than twice as likely as younger users to report that they do not take any of these actions to secure their phones (8% vs. 3%)..."

Other risky behaviors consumers perform:

"... 54% of internet users use public Wi-Fi networks, and many of these users are performing sensitive activities such online shopping (21%) or online banking (20%)."