[ICTinfo] Keep an eye on your phone and make sure you have backups!

Although most are never adequately prepared for it, many users are suddenly left without their vital smartphone - whether due to theft, loss or failure after a fall. A recent survey of around 1,000 representative users by the German digital association Bitkom (which represents more than 2,000 domestic ICT companies and institutions) found that one in five (21%) have had their phone stolen, two percent have had it stolen twice and one percent three or more times. Exactly one fifth (20%) of users have lost their phone once, 12% twice and 13% three or more times. Even three-quarters (76%) of users have had their smartphone fail due to a fall - 18% once, 28% twice and even 30% three or more times. Despite the fact that most users prevent access to their data by using a lock screen and many have a search option enabled, the vast majority do not make regular backups of their address books, photos and other data - which are essential to limit the damage caused by theft, loss or destruction of the device.

More information

The economy, manufacturing, education and other sectors have been subject to increased pressures and changes in recent years as a result of the pandemic and the measures taken to contain it, as well as the Russia-Ukraine war, as confirmed by various surveys and analyses. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector is also exposed to similar changes, but at the same time it is able to monitor, assess and control changes not only in its own sector but also in all other sectors, which has been a valuable help to all of them in recent years.

ICT helps businesses and institutions in all industries to organise work, adapt operations, streamline operations, process data, evaluate results, predict trends and discover new opportunities. And they enable schools and universities to implement hybrid forms of teaching and meaningful digitisation of learning processes.

This is why we have decided to publish regular summaries of information, assessments, analyses and studies by research and analyst companies that can help everyone to better monitor, learn about and understand changes and trends and to adapt more successfully to the new ICT era.

Prepared by the Department of Information and Communication Technologies in collaboration with Esad Jakupović