According to security firm, Symantec, stolen or lost smartphones and tablet computers are costing businesses roughly $429,000 (£273,273) a year in financial expenses, not to mention data leaks and permanent damage that could be caused to the brand's identity.

Symantec's report, State of Mobility Survey 2012, also underlined that despite knowing about these risks, companies are still opting for mobile solutions due to extensive travelling and the need to be constantly connected on the go.

According to the security firm, mobility was one of the top three IT risks the companies were facing.

Symantec's endpoint and mobility group's VP, CJ Desai, stated in the report:

"This cultural change from refusing mobile devices not long ago, to actively distributing and developing mobile applications, has introduced a new set of challenges and complexities for IT staff."

In addition, the research underlined that roughly 71 per cent of firms were keen on developing mobile apps for their companies.

Whilst smartphone applications were a great idea, the risk of hackers injecting malicious scripts into the apps grew as well, the firm warned.

However, it has been underlined that the biggest hazard lied within employees losing their work-based smarties rather than hack attacks.