The trouble with the world is that once you have got used to something, you don't feel like giving it up even if it is dangerous. The nicotine addict will go on smoking; one excuse is that they do not know what to do with their hands during personal interactions. The soda drinker will climb every fountain to get at the stuff even though he knows that it isn’t good for his health.

Today, the cell phone has taken centre stage in such debates. Doctors warn you not to keep the handset in your shirt pocket. If it starts ringing suddenly and unexpectedly, it could cause a heart attack. Others talk about radiation from towers. In several places it has come to a situation where towers are being banned. At the same time, nobody wants to give up their phones.

One of the issues with cell phones is that people don’t seem to know how to use them in the workplace. It is common for a meeting to be interrupted by all sorts of ring tones. The boss needs to have three phones in front of him and a secretary in the background to run in and say: “Sir, London’s on the line.” The sub-boss has two phones and so it goes. The whole process can be stopped if the CEO gives up his phones for the duration of the meeting. There have been times when an interviewee pulled out a phone during an interview and went into a gossip session with an “excuse me for a minute”.

Bad telephone manners take an eventual toll. But a more urgent problem in this age of smart phones is security. Two decades ago, phones were expensive and talk time even more so. Companies refused to foot the bill even for senior people. The impression that the cell phone is a luxury has continued at many companies. Today, there are still plenty of organisations that have refused to change their mindset.

But everybody has a smart phone; you can get one at Rs 3,000. It’s really like a mini-computer. You can walk out with valuable data on a phone. With a camera and a recording facility, you can become a James Bond. Companies have never been as vulnerable as they are today.

In India, people have not started addressing these issues. The PC is becoming history as smart phones and tablets take over. Companies are welcoming the reduction in infrastructure costs. But they are taking no precautions. BYOD (bring your own device) is still the norm.

What can go wrong? First, you may lose your phone; it happens all the time. If it’s a personal phone, the worst that can happen is that your girlfriend’s number is known to others. But if you have been using the phone at work, there could be information valuable to a competitor.

Second, the viruses are coming. When a smart phone is used for both personal and office work, one trespasses on the other. You downloaded that pirated e-book on the Internet and used the phone to convey it to another computer. You took a virus for a ride along with you. When you plug your phone into your office computer to update sales data, you gift the company a possibly malicious virus. Smart phone viruses are being developed all the time. Cyber security in the office — if it exists at all — will soon be unable to cope.

An ISACA 2012 risk-rewards barometer for India says that cost reduction was one of the benefits of allowing employees to bring their own devices. Companies will be singing a different tune when the smart phone outsmarts their security systems.