Millions of mobiles are going missing each year, and many of them contain sensitive information. Are you doing enough to protect your handset from fraudulent use – or are you putting your personal data at risk?
Modern mobiles are amazing. Forget calls and texts – smartphones let us manage our emails, shop online, even manage our bank accounts.
But with increased use and desirability, comes increased risk of loss and theft. According to Which? research, nearly 9 million of us have lost our mobile at least once in the last five years (at least 2.2 million more than once). And 5.7 million have had a mobile nicked.
Ouch. That’s a lot of missing mobiles. Small comfort that most of us spot our phone missing within an hour – an absent phone is an absent phone, regardless of how long you’ve been without it.
Personal data at risk
Three in ten people said they store personal information such as Pin numbers, passwords or home addresses on their phones. Valuable data that thieves would love to get their greasy hands on, making a missing phone an even greater cause for concern.
When Which? asked mobile phone users about their mobile security back in 2008, six in ten had no security measures in place on their phone – such as setting a mobile Pin-lock.
That data’s pretty old so mobile users may have got more savvy since then. But I, for one, don’t do everything I should to keep my mobile safe. I use a password to lock my handset after a certain period of inactivity. And at one point I definitely noted down my phone’s IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number (it’s anyone’s guess where I put it though).
But my mobile’s not registered with immobilise.com – a property register that helps police identify and return stolen property. Plus, I have a bad habit of leaving my handset out on tables in pubs or cafés – a tempting proposition for opportunist thieves.
Mobile security should be second nature
Luckily I’ve never lost my phone – not for more than a few hours anyway – or had it stolen. But enough of my friends have that I know the worry it can cause. And I’ve heard horror stories of people who’ve had huge bills run up by thieves. And that’s no laughing matter when mobile operators, unlike credit card companies, aren’t liable for fraudulent use.
So Which? Mobile’s research is a valuable reminder that owning a high-spec handset comes with added responsibilities. Yes, mobile operators could – and arguably should – do more to flag atypical mobile use.
But if we’ve done nothing to stop a thief accessing our personal details or using our phone to run up big bills, then we have only ourselves to blame.