By Heidi Beguin With the amount of information we type into our phones - social security numbers, account numbers, health accounts, family member’s personal information - it’s important to make sure others can’t retrieve that data if your phone is ever lost or stolen. I remember reading an article years ago cautioning phone users to add their family members by their first and last names in their contacts so a thief wouldn’t immediately know to try to get information from a contact named ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’. That seems silly now, but when you think about how much data is waiting on your phone to be breached, it’s smart to take a few precautions.
According to https://www.fcc. gov (Federal Communications Commission), the best way to keep your info safely nestled inside your phone is to make sure you set pins and passwords. Take precautions so that other people can’t just enter your phone and start tapping around. If you use facial recognition, you’re on the right track. Setting a personal pin number or password makes it that much harder for a stranger to get inside.
Leave your security settings alone on your phone. Your phone arrives in your hands with the best built-in security features already set.
Find a way to backup your data in the case of a stolen or lost phone. Can you easily retrieve your contacts, photos, and information by some other means without the phone? If not, you should find a way using the cloud or a storage card (SIM card) to keep a backup of all the important information.
When using an open WiFi network, think about the information you’re providing for hackers using the same network. Did you just log into your bank? It’s possible that they now have that information too. When using open networks (a restaurant providing you with their wifi password, for example), don’t log into anything that you wouldn’t want others to also be able to get into. Jumping onto social networks already open on your phone are fine, but if you need to log in, think twice.
When you’re ready to sell, donate, or recycle your phone, make sure it’s wiped clean of all your information. Each phone should be set to ‘factory reset’ to return it to its initial factory settings, completely clean of all your personal data.
In today’s world of unbelievable cyber attacks, cloning, and identity theft, taking a few extra security measures could be the difference between having to race around clearing accounts or breathing easily.