I’ve just returned from spending much of August in a forest half way up a mountain in North Wales. Sun-soaked beaches are not for the Winder family, we prefer our holidays to be as far away from Mr and Mrs Chav and their half dozen Chav kids as possible to be honest. But what does this have to do with mobile data security? Read on, and all might be revealed.

This does also mean being away from those things that many people take for granted whether on holiday or not: pubs and shops within walking distance for example, not to mention a mobile phone signal every now and then. I solved the lack of beer problem by packing one suitcase, quite literally, full of bottles of Spitfire. The connectivity issue was not a problem, as this year I promised myself a proper holiday rather than the usual ‘get up early and work before the family can find me’ and ’stay up late and work while the family sleep’ one that I’ve had the last few years. I didn’t even bother taking a netbook with me this year, although I did pack my iPhone as I’m not sure I would have survived up a mountain without Angry Birds, Bejeweled, Boggle and Osmos to keep me company.

Welsh Assembly staff also seem to have done without mobile phones and laptops, although not in a good way according to the numbers based upon a Freedom of Information request. It seems that in the last couple of years some 24 laptops worth £800 a piece, and 30 mobile phones/smartphones, have gone missing. A total of £21,000 worth of technology kit has been either lost or stolen from Welsh Assembly Government staff in that period, it would seem. Fair play to them, they did recover three laptops and four mobile phones from that total, and overall the lost items are a relatively small percentage when you consider that the Welsh Assembly has handed out some 2,300 lappies and 2,950 mobiles.

Dr Bjoern Rupp, CEO, GSMK CryptoPhone is worried that sensitive information might get into the wring hands. He says “Government laptops and phones contain a wealth of sensitive information and losing just one device is the equivalent of losing a whole filing cabinet of confidential data” and, not surprisingly given his job, suggests data encryption is the answer. I do, of course, agree with him. In fact, I always recommend encrypting sensitive data on any mobile device be it from a Government department or a corporate one. There’s no evidence to suggest that the missing laptops and mobiles were not encrypted, as far as I can see, and no suggestion that any sensitive data has fallen into the wrong hands either in the case of the Welsh Assembly losses.

I do find it rarther disturbing, reading the full FOI disclosure letter, thnat in the two year period only “one member of staff has been disciplined” over the losses. That suggests there could be room for improvement in how such incidents are dealt with. After all, if there is seen to be no disciplinary consequence for a loss or theft then why bother worrying about preventing it?

Drawing on my holiday experience in the deepest depths of North Wales, I would suggest the following mobile data security strategy for any Welsh business: put all data in the cloud. This solves the security issue on two fronts. First, if a mobile device is lost or stolen the actual data is not lost or stolen along with it. Second, nobody will be able to access the data from a lost or stolen mobile device as Internet connectivity does not exist in North Wales.

Erm, OK, can you tell that perhaps I missed my Internet fix a little more than I at first let on?