How Secure is Your Phone?

Glenn McKnight

Phone Theft

PHONE THEFT

As MSNBC reported in October 2012, New York City Police say that more than 40 percent of all robberies now involve cellphones.

Best is the robbery is just the phone, Worst people have been badly injured and some killed for their phones

Phones are a quick $200 on the street

What is the

Anyone who picked it up would have been able to read my personal and work e-mails and text messages, see my photos and get to all my contacts

?

How are your mobile carriers doing about it?

Carriers have up until now blocked SIM cards on stolen phones, preventing unauthorized calls from going through.

That was easy to get around: thieves would simply install a new SIM card and sell the phone on the second-hand market.

Nov 2012 The CTIA, a wireless industry trade group, moved to stop smartphone thieves in their tracks by switching on databases to block stolen phones from being used on the four major US networks: AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint.

By Sept 2013 Canadians can expect data blocking

Before it was stolen

5 Things I should have done

# 1

Put a Password on you phone

Auto-lock your phone. Password Protect Your PhoneWith all the messages, years of email, contacts, social networking accounts and other personal data stored on today's smartphones, , but the extra security and peace of mind is worth the effort.

While a thief could still wipe a password-protected device and there's always the possibility you just lost the phone for good, the alternative (going password-free) leaves not only your cellphone account but your bank, social networking, and e-mail accounts completely open. If your phone was stolen and you haven't locked it down, immediately change the passwords to your online accounts and alert any banks or services that you enabled on the phone.

Record Serial Number and IMEI number

IMEI Number on IPHONE

Navigate to Iphone Settings

Click on About

The IMEI is a long reference number

Obtain your IMEI by dialing *#06#

Save Your Phone's Unique IDTake a note of your phone's ESN, IMEI or MEID number (often found behind the battery or on the back of the iPhone near the FCC ID). This number will come in handy when reporting a lost or stolen phone to the police or to your cellphone provider.

# 3

Contact your phone carrier to make sure they have your IMEI number is registered

# 4

Install Phone Apps to locate your phone

Keep your apps and device software up to date. Hackers work diligently to discover new vulnerabilities in our apps or the software that operates our phones. Device manufacturers and app developers frequently update their software to fix newly exploited security gaps, but if you dont download and install these updates your information is still at risk.

Visit this site and call your phone, it might be quite close

Contact Your PhonePCMag recommends using another phone to text your lost phone with a message offering a reward for the device, and you can always try calling it as well. If you don't have a phone handy, you can use a service like Skype, Google Voice or fonefindr.com to ping your phone. It can't hurt -- someone may have found your phone or maybe you'll find hear it ringing between the couch cushions

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Free app FIND MY IPHONE app from the Itunes storeGO teo your settings in your IPHONE and turn on the ICLOUD If misplaced to to -https://www.icloud.com/#find-Can play sound-Can remotely erase phone

Install Phone Apps to locate your phone

ANDROID LOST is an android app, which helps you locate your Android powered Phone when it gets missing. Remote control your phone by just texting a custom attention message and the app turns the ringer volume up and makes your phone ring. It is also possible to get the precise GPS location of your phone. Simply text your attention word from any other cell phone or from the web to your own lost phone. The passcode feature is there which will not allow others to uninstall the app without prior Notification to the Owner.FOLLOWING FEATURES CAN BE CONTROLLED BY THE ATTENTION MESSAGE -Delete information in the SD card.Gives you the current status of battery and IMEI number.Call forwarding.Take picture of the user from the front camera.Read your smss and sends them to your E-mail.

# 5

Routine backups to your computer

Schedule Regular Backups It sounds obvious, but regularly back up your device to your computer to ensure that you don't lose essentials documents, purchases, apps and photos that are stored only on your phone. Even if you're forced to wipe your cellphone or if it's lost for good, you can often restore a factory fresh replacement to the last backup you've got, complete with apps, settings and documents. Depending on how much you use your phone, we recommend backing up between once a month and once a week.

ICLOUDCost