Robert Siciliano
Online Security and Safety Evangelist to McAfee Robert is an identity theft expert who is committed to ...
We’ve all been there. You search your pockets, your belt clip, jacket pockets, every draw, cabinet, bag, couch, and floor, every crevice of your car and dog house. You wonder if you left it in the bar last night or over your friend’s house. You’d text all your buddies to see if they have it but, well, you can’t.
It’s that horrible feeling that comes over you as you realize you no longer have your mobile phone. In the past you might have first thought of the cost of having to buy a new phone and re-enter all your contacts. But now with the advent of smartphones, there’s much more to lose than the device itself.
Because our mobile devices can hold personal and work contacts, account logins, photos, and messages, losing your device means exposing your private world to strangers and identity thieves. They can browse your apps and activities, extract your addresses, download files and pictures, send all your Facebook friends fake or embarrassing content, or gain access to your bank accounts and drain them. And recreating and restoring all the content we have on our smartphones can take hours, if it is even possible.
I’ve lost count of how many phones I’ve found in bars or parks, at the beach or when running along the trails. And the most amazing part is I’ve been able to return all but a very few. And how do I do this? Because most people don’t lock their phones!!! This means I can pick up the phone and got through their contact lists and look for “Mom.” In other cases I just wait for someone to call it and say “Hello I found this phone how can I help you?”
There are some things you can do so you don’t have that freak-out moment.
Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Expert to McAfee. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Mobile was Hacked! (Disclosures)
Tags: Android, android antivirus, Android security, android security app, anti-phishing, anti-theft, anti-virus, antivirus, app protection, BlackBerry, identity theft, internet security, McAfee SiteAdvisor, Mobile, mobile antivirus, mobile app, mobile security, mobile security app, phishing, QR codes, safe searching, Symbian, tablet security, web protection
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