In a nation where mobile penetration rates exceed the population, most Singaporeans do not practise enough mobile security.

This finding was according to the Norton Cybercrime Report 2012, which was released on Tuesday. A total of 500 respondents aged between 18 to 64 were polled for the study.

The report said that three in 10 "choose not to" use any mobile security software, with another four in 10 unaware of the availability of such technology. More than one in three also do not use passwords.

This was an "alarming statistic", the report noted, given that figures indicate the reliance of Singaporeans on their mobile devices. Some 84 per cent use their phones to connect to the Internet and 55 per cent consider themselves addicted.

But the report also lauded Singaporeans for practising some good mobile online habits, such as downloading applications from trusted sources (79 per cent), not saving important personal information (71 per cent), limiting the sites visited (61 per cent), using secure payment methods (59 per cent), and turning off geographic location tracking (56 per cent).

According to statistics from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, the mobile population penetration rate as of December 2012 was 151.8 per cent. This means there are three mobile subscriptions for every two people in Singapore.