Study: Smartphones Become Primary Storage for Personal Data

Photos, documents, work correspondence, passwords, financial information — for many, the smartphone has long become the main repository of digital life. At the same time, the more valuable data ends up on a single device, the higher the cost of its compromise. Kaspersky Lab has found out what exactly users most often trust to their smartphones in a new study.

As the survey showed, smartphones are now used as a universal storage for a variety of data. Most often, users save photos and videos (64%), contacts and phone numbers (55%), and messenger chats and SMS (46%). At the same time, many also trust mobile devices with more confidential information: financial data and credentials for financial services are stored on smartphones by more than a third of respondents (36%), passwords and credentials for various services by 34%, purchase history and delivery addresses by 33%, and personal documents (e.g., passport scans or e-tickets) by 41%.

Smartphones are also actively used to store other data. Thus, 39% of users store corporate correspondence on their mobile device, 26% store work calendar and meeting schedules. More than a third (31%) save passwords for accounts in entertainment services in the browser, 25% store history of communication with AI services, 22% store location data (saved addresses and travel history), 19% store medical data, and 14% store information about the location of relatives and close people.

"Today, for most people, the smartphone has become not just a means of communication, but a real digital wallet, archive, and work tool. On one device, banking apps, documents, photos, passwords, and personal correspondence can be stored. Therefore, it is important to pay attention not only to protecting the smartphone itself, but also to the user's digital habits — use complex unique passwords, two-factor authentication, and regularly back up data," notes Mushvig Mammadov, official representative of Kaspersky Lab in Azerbaijan.

"We often underestimate how much valuable information is stored in our smartphones and how interesting it is to attackers. Today the question is not what data we trust to the mobile device, but how reliably it is protected. Therefore, it is worth regularly backing up important data, using security solutions, and thinking in advance what to do in case of smartphone loss," says Anton Kivva, cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Lab recommends following these security rules:

• Do not use the smartphone as the only storage for important information; regularly create backups, including via cloud services. It is especially important to additionally protect the most confidential data — passwords, banking information, and documents. For this, you can use specialized solutions such as Kaspersky Password Manager, which allows you to securely store credentials, bank cards, documents, notes, and other confidential information in a protected vault with synchronization between devices;

• Install a reliable security solution on all devices used, the effectiveness of which is confirmed by independent tests;

• Protect the device in case of possible loss: enable the smartphone's location function, set up automatic data backup and instant screen lock after it is turned off. In addition, do not leave the device unattended in public places or store it in easily accessible places.