Lock your smartphone

Quick tip: lock your smartphone
I was a bit surprised by a couple of stats I recently stumbled upon. A blog post from iovation and another blog post from ZDNet reported that most smartphone users forgo the locking functionality. While entering a PIN to use your phone may seem unwieldy, the time, effort, and money required to recover from identity theft can far surpass the time required to enter a four digit PIN with each use.

Information on your phone
Our smartphones not only store an incredible amount of information, but they are also a gateway to many of our online accounts. Information commonly found on smartphones include:

• The majority of personal information a fraudster needs to perpetrate identify theft, for example: full name, address, DOB, phone number, etc.
• Personal information about those we care about, including: names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and social media profiles
• Personal photos and videos
• Financial information, such as bank accounts, transaction history, and financial instruments
• Physical location history via check-in, mapping, and review (e.g. Yelp!) applications

A more secure option
The first line of defense is basic common sense and situational awareness: be mindful of where you use and store your phone. The second line of defense, a simple PIN, takes less than four seconds to unlock, but can stop basic hacking attempts. Be sure to choose a strong PIN. The third line of defense is remote wipe. With a small amount of effort, the smartphone can be a secure alternative for your wallet.

Bonus function
A locked smartphone will also reduce the risk of untimely pocket dials.


iOS (iPhone) Instructions
Step 1 - Choose the "Setting" icon from the home screen
Step 2 - Navigate to the "General" option

Step 3 - Scroll down to the "Passcode Lock" option

Step 4 - Select "Require Passcode." In this case, "After 1 min." is selected. For increased security, select "Immediately". For stronger security, turn off "Simple Passcode" and select a strong password instead.

Additional resources

• http://www.fcc.gov/smartphone-security