During this difficult period, when many people have lost their jobs or suffered salary reductions due to the pandemic , they are also facing an additional issue of data security, as half of the corporate devices returned to employers still contain personal information .
According to research by asset disposal service DSA Connect, 26% of people have had to hand over electronic devices . In 50% of cases, these devices contained information such as bank and credit card, personal passwords and photos.
DSA Connect estimates that 4.5 million devices have been delivered to employers so far.
As England faces a second lockdown and other parts of the UK increase their restrictions, the number of devices being returned to employers is expected to increase further.
DSA Connect commissioned market research firm Consumer Intelligence to interview 1,029 people from October 16 to 18, 2020.
Harry Benham, chairman of DSA Connect, said: “There are a large number of electronic devices that have been returned to employers due to staff being made redundant or furloughed during the crisis.”
“Employers should try to clean these devices professionally, ensuring that all data is erased from them so they can be reused by staff or sold. Unfortunately, in too many cases this is not done properly and new users are inadvertently gaining access to confidential data they shouldn’t be seeing.”
The COVID-19 has resulted in job losses across many industries. In October, unemployment rose to its highest level in three years, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
Recent research from Which?has shown that when data breaches occur at companies following cyberattack , stolen information from devices, such as passwords or credit card and banking details, can be sold to fraudsters. According to another Which? survey, the results revealed that 46% of people whose data was stolen by hackers following a breach at a large company went on to experience fraud.
