Would you be lost if your smart phone, laptop, or tablet went missing or was stolen?
Unfortunately, more thieves are targeting expensive personal mobile devices for theft. Not only are these devices valuable, but a savvy hacker can access your personal information — email, bank accounts, online shopping transactions, and more — to steal your identity and your money. The risk can be even greater to businesses and organizations that allow their employees to work remotely, as theft can lead to expensive data loss, asset theft, and worse.
That’s why it’s so important to protect yourself by taking the following steps to stay ahead of hackers. Here are the three things you can do to protect yourself in case your mobile device goes missing.
Change your passwords regularly. This might seem obvious, but consider this: It’s likely that your laptop, tablet, or phone automatically “remembers” your passwords and logs into your most-used accounts. Be sure to set strong passwords to limit the damage, and use a different password for each account. If your device is lost or stolen, immediately change all of your account passwords.
Use tracking programs and software to keep track of your mobile devices. Did you know that you can remotely track your electronic devices and if they are stolen, obtain information that could help police recover them? Check out this list of options for keeping tabs on your laptop or other mobile device.
Back up all of your information. Do you use a cloud service for file storage? If so, you may already have the advantage of an additional layer of protection because your data can be retrieved from the cloud if you lose your hardware. You can also back up your data on an external hard drive.
