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Study highlights lax mobile security practices among gov’t employees

A study on government employees' mobile security practices revealed a number of risky activities the workforce engages in while on the go.

On Tuesday, the Mobile Work Exchange, an organization that educates federal workers on workplace mobility, released the 17-page report.

The study, called “The 2014 Mobilometer Tracker: Mobility, Security, and the Pressure in Between,” found that 31 percent of government respondents admitted to using public Wi-Fi on work-related mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets.

Additionally, 52 percent of government employees polled said that they failed to use multi-factor authentication or data encryption methods on mobile devices.

The study also noted that a significant number of workers, one out of four respondents, didn't use a password for mobile devices used for work-related tasks.

Commissioned by Cisco, the report was based on feedback from 155 individuals in government positions and 30 government agency responses polled from September through November of 2013.

The feedback of 97 individuals and 24 organizations in the private sector was also included in the report.

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