Protecting your device and your data, too.
by Allyson Kazmucha
Almost every business user carries a smartphone these days. As technology progresses, so does the amount of data that's stored on your iPhone, iPad, or any other smartphone or tablet. While everyone always hopes to never face a day his or her device is stolen, there are steps you can take to protect the most important thing–your data.
Apple offers iCloud services for free to iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac users that will allow you to track your device remotely as well as wipe it. You can download the free Find My iPhone app from the App Store or track your devices on the web via the iCloud.com website. These tools greatly help police successfully track and recover lost or stolen devices. If the device isn't found, iCloud also gives you the option to remotely wipe the device or display messages on the screen so that if it's found, it may be returned.
Carriers such as AT&T also offer paid services such as Family Map and Smart Limits to help you track devices. Once added to your plan you can log in to the carrier's services in order to track the phone. This service is greatly beneficial as it supports any device from Android to Windows Phone to iPhones.
While it's never fun to have to replace a stolen phone, data is something that can't be replaced. Backing up regularly to your computer or a service like iCloud is vital in making sure that if your device ever is missing, your data is stored in a safe place.
It's also equally important to make sure that your device is safeguarded from potential hackers and data thieves. These days many people store passwords, credit card numbers, personal photos, contact information and much more on their smartphones. Most, if not all, of those devices have the option to institute a passcode lock. In the unfortunate incident that you do lose a device or one gets stolen, you can at least rest assured that your data is protected.
It's most important to make sure that your online data is safe in case a device disappears. There are many apps available for iOS and Android that help you create strong passwords and store them in a safe way.
“1Password” by Agile Bits is one of the most popular password protection apps and it's available for iOS, Android, Mac and PC. More than that, it can wirelessly sync and encrypt all your login, wallet and password information with Dropbox so it can easily be restored from any device at a later date.
If you haven't taken steps to protect yourself against data miners and thieves, there's never a wrong time to do so. We recommend finding out what options are available for tracking and security by visiting a carrier store or a local Apple store if you've got iOS products in your work flow.
Next, check out the App Store or Android Marketplace for password apps that help you secure your data even further.
Allyson Kazmucha owns The Pod Drop in downtown Michigan City, an iPhone, iPad and iPod repair and consulting company. She also is co-owner of AnoStyle(TM), and is a full-time editor for iMore.com.
