One-Third Of UAE Users Experience Mobile Device Theft – Survey

Around one in three users in the UAE has experienced loss, theft or damage to portable digital devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets in the last 12 months, a new survey has revealed.

According to the Kaspersky Consumer Security Risks survey, around 35 per cent of users in the country reported that their mobile devices were either lost, stolen or damaged in the last 12 months.

Out of this, the poll revealed that nearly 22 per cent of the users claimed their devices were irreparably damaged while 10 per cent of the users lost their gadgets. Up to seven per cent of the respondents said that their mobile devices were stolen.

The survey also revealed that the majority of mobile phone users store important data on their mobile devices, which could lead to the loss of valuable and often personal information in the event of a theft.

Around 82 per cent of the users in the UAE were found to store personal photos and videos in their smartphones while 79 per cent stored this information in tablets.

The majority of those polled (around 67 per cent) said that they conducted personal email correspondence through their tablets followed by their smartphones. Around 43 per cent said that they used smartphones to send work emails while 37 per cent used tablets.

Nearly 30 per cent said that they used smartphones and tablets to store business documents.

Smartphones were also popular among the UAE’s mobile users to store passwords and other account details, the research found.

Around 28 per cent of respondents said that they store passwords to their social networks and email accounts in their smartphones while 24 per cent said that they used tablets.

The survey also revealed that around 16 per cent store financial information, especially passwords to online banking accounts, in their smartphones and tablets.

The findings come in the wake of rising cybercrime in the UAE and other Gulf countries.

According to a previous Kaspersky study, around 69 per cent of UAE residents faced at least one financial cyber threat last year. Out of those, 37 per cent reported that they incurred financial loss from such threats.