How much personal or business information is accessible from your smart phone?
Smart phones are an essential accessory to support our daily life. New uses for phones are being developed every day, with new apps set to change how we work and play.
Recently a tech-savvy Twitter user found an iPhone and was able to trace the owner and look through key information – even though the phone was locked with a password. The user found the phone on a night out and through asking Siri some basic questions was able to find the phone owners name, most called contacts, where their car was parked and, most scarily, where they live.
Thankfully, iPhones will remove the ability to access data on the phone without being signed in using either fingerprint, sensor or passcode. To ensure that you are protecting your data all you need to do is go to ‘Settings’ on your iPhone, select ‘Touch ID & Passcode’ and under ‘Allow access when locked’ switch off Siri, today’s view and notifications view.
It is something that we would also recommend for businesses to do with company phones to ensure that if a company phone is lost that nothing can be accessed.
Another recommendation is to ensure that you are updating your home PCs and laptops. These updates ensure the latest security patches are installed. Security updates are the most common reason for updates.
As we become more connected with an increasing array of linked devices, it is even vital to ensure all devices are updated.
Ask your IT provider how to lock-down your smart phone, and to make sure that your operating system updates are setup.