Cell Phone Security Knowledge and Usage Survey

For my project, I was curious to explore the cell phone security knowledge of different age groups and what factors may contribute to cell phone knowledge. I finally got a sample of 50 participants. The majority of my sample was between the age of 19-24 with 80% and 8% were 25+ and 12% were 15-18. I think it is important to survey a wide range of age groups because age may have a factor in technology. My sample also had 70% female participants and 30% were male participants. 64% of my sample is currently enrolled in college with 14% who's highest level of education was High School or GED. Of my sample, 18% had already completed their Bachelor's Degree and 4% of my sample had their Master's Degree.
I surveyed people on their model phone and 15% owned an iPhone, 2% owned an Android, 18% owned a Blackberry, 8% owned an other smart phone and 56% owned an "other" phone. The majority (50%) of my sample rated their tech-knowledge as between a 7-8 and 30% said they were between a 9-10. For mobile web, 38% of my sample use this application more than 1-2 times a day, 45% either do not use the application or do not have the application. Bluetooth usage is rare with only 6% saying that they use bluetooth more than 1-2 times a day and 88% saying that they rarely use the feature or don't have this feature. 94% of my sample said that they text message more than 1-2 times a day and 50% said they use email more than 1-2 times a day. On the other hand 44% say they don't receive emails or they do not have this option.
When I questioned my sample about cell phone security, I used the question from lecture "Which of the following ways can a hacker access your information?" and, I was surprised to find that 28% chose Address book and 22% thought it was Bluetooth. Answers were very spread out which made me come to the conclusion that only a few people know about cell phone security. Most of my sample, about 60%, rate their cell phone security between a 5-7. When asked about encryption on the cellphone, 52% said they did not know how to use that feature and 16% said they do turn encryption on. My sample had 60% not requiring authentication or a password on their phone and 36% said they do. Many people do not have or do not know how to use remote wipe on their device, 54% and 20% do have this feature.
I was not surprised when I reviewed the data. I first looked at who answered the "cell phone hacker" question correctly. There were 11 people who answered bluetooth and 5 were males and 6 were females. I found that it was interesting that 2 of the girls who answered were 15-18. They also rated their tech-knowledge as 9, based on this information, I would assume that younger people have grown up with the technology and perhaps this could lead to better tech-knowledge? The people with the higher tech-knolwedge are also the same people who have iPhones, Blackberrys and Androids. This data leads me to believe that people with the more advance technology also have more knowledge of the technology. Based on my data, I learned that many people are not aware of the security features on their device. Some people who own smart phones are not aware of the security features on their device. After doing research on wireless provider websites, I found that finding security information was very difficult to find. Websites like Verizon Wireless and AT&T do not have easily accessible information regarding security on their devices. I think that the public is not aware of security issues on their phone because everyone is taught to be half-hazard about their cellphones. If wireless providers would give their users information about cell phone security I think that people would be more aware of the security issues that may occur and how to prevent them.