Protect Your Phones!

Your phones are full of your personal information. If you lose it, what will you do? I spoke with a parent yesterday whose iPhone plunged into the ocean last week. She has always kept a notebook with her contacts listed, but do the rest of us? Some people are using iCloud to synchronize their iPhones, but is that enough? What if you don’t use an iPhone but one of the Android or Blackberrys? These are questions you probably should figure out answers to.

And, now that you can use a phone for mobile banking, the dangers just keep increasing. Here is an excerpt from a recent article:

“…study released this month by computer security firm Symantec.

The study began with Symantec personnel "losing" 50 smartphones in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Bay area. The smartphones were equipped with special tracking software that allowed researchers to find out what the people who found the phones attempted to do with them. They monitored what apps the finders attempted to open, what websites they attempted to access, and where they took the phone physically.

The results can't be comforting for those who keep and access sensitive financial information and conduct financial business on their smartphones. Here are some points from the study.

• An attempt to access an online banking app was observed on 43 percent of the devices.
• A "Saved Passwords" file was accessed on 57 percent of the phones.
• Sixty-six percent of the devices showed attempts to click through the login or password reset screens (where a login page was presented with username and password fields that were prefilled, suggesting that the account could be accessed by simply clicking on the "login" button).
• Of the 50 devices, the owner only received 25 offers to help, despite the fact that the owner's phone number and email address were clearly marked in the contacts app.

While the sample size of the study was relatively small, it does suggest that if you're using technologies like mobile banking, mobile payments and person-to-person payment apps and you lose your smartphone, it's very possible the person who finds it will attempt to use them to steal from you.”

Go to this link if you want more information.

http://www.bankrate.com/financing/banking/lost-smartphones-a-target-for-thieves/?ec_id=cmct_01_comm_PF_image_headline