You May be Losing More than You Think with a Misplaced Phone

Does your skin crawl with the thought of what would happen if you lose track of your smartphone? These days, a lot of users keep a plethora of personal information on their mobile devices, which makes a loss all the more dangerous for them. How can you make sure that your mobile device doesn’t accidentally become a treasure trove of information for any hackers or thieves who might try to steal it?

It all starts by being cognizant of which information you could be putting at risk. Here is a list of information that you’ll have to be wary of storing on your mobile devices whenever possible. You might be surprised by how much you could accidentally store without realizing it!

• Payment information: Your applications might contain information about payment methods, such as credit card numbers or bank account numbers. If this information is stolen, hackers can swipe all of your hard-earned assets.
• Passwords and Usernames: Your device’s web browser likely has some usernames and passwords stored on it, even if you’ve done so accidentally. Any usernames and passwords stored on your device can be used to gain access to apps and accounts that could hold an incredible amount of data, all ripe for the picking.
• Application Data: Since you’re using your mobile device to access various applications, any information that you’re storing in these applications will be at risk in the event of a lost device. Even applications that are locked behind login screens with usernames and passwords can be cracked if the application stores your password and username information.
• Cloud Storage Access: If you have access to a cloud storage system on your device, any data stored on it can be accessed by anyone in possession of your device. This means that any company data that’s shared with your device’s account will be exposed to anyone using your device--even if it’s not you.
• Social Media Accounts: Your social media applications generally store your username and password so that logging in is as easy as possible. While this is great from a user standpoint, it’s also perfect for hackers or thieves who have stolen your device. They can use your device to access your social media accounts and impersonate you for a variety of misdeeds--and that’s not even mentioning any information found on your account.
• Email: We keep a lot of sensitive information in our email inboxes, it’s a fact of life. If this gets into the wrong hands, you’ll have a lot of trouble on your hands.
• Contacts: This is the big one. The email addresses and contact information for all of your contacts, both business and personal, has a lot of value to the bad guys.

With all of this in mind, it’s critical that your company take measures to secure mobile devices--particularly those that contain or have access to your business’ assets. To learn more about how you can protect your mobile device and your data, reach out to us at (509) 534-1530.