Venafi predicts rise in London smartphone theft during Olympics

An estimated 67,000 mobile phones are likely to be lost or stolen during the London Olympic Games, according to data security vendor Venafi.

In the London area alone, 50,000 mobile phones are lost or stolen during a typical fortnight.

During the Olympics, which start this Friday, the population of London is expected to soar by a third, which Venafi claims, could result in a further 17,000 devices being lost in the capital.

Forty per cent of the lost or stolen phones are expected to be smartphones. This could equate to a collective loss of 214.4 terabytes of data, the company added.

And, with so many people using smartphones to access work emails and documents, there is a danger that this could lead to corporate data being compromised.

Gregory Webb, vice president of marketing of Venafi, said: "With the ever-shrinking boundaries between work devices and work-enabled personal devices, lost or stolen smartphones and other mobile devices that fall into the wrong hands place companies and business data at tremendous risk."