17 September 2008
Almost 56,000 mobile phones have been found in the back seats of taxis in London over the last six months, according to research from Credant Technologies. Black cab drivers said they found 55,843 handsets left abandoned in their vehicles by passengers over the period. Numerous other gadgets have also been left in the back of taxis, including mp3 players, memory cards and even laptops, the research shows. Michael Callahan, chief marketing officer at Credant Technologies said: "It's only when you've lost a mobile device containing all your friends, family and business contacts or your company's data that you really understand how disastrous it can be." He advised mobile phone users to password protect their phones to prevent other people from accessing the information stored in the memory. The good news is that according to the research, 80% of London cabbies have managed to reunite owners with their lost items. Mobile phone security could become increasingly important with the growth of mobile banking. mFoundry announced recently that it was making its mobile banking product available to iPhone users.