Your smartphone may have a huge target on it

October 1, 2010 – 9:42 am

Your smartphone is your right arm – it’s your link to your job, your personal life and even your day-to-day schedule. But it could also be a link for an identity thief to your most personal information.

With an increasing number of people using smartphones to store personal and financial data, this could be the next big thing in identity theft. Why? A smartphone is less secure than a personal computer. And you’re about 15 times more likely to lose your cell phone than your laptop.

To protect your data on your phone:

1. Prevent access. Secure your phone by encrypting passwords and locking the keypad when it’s not in use. Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you’re not using it.

2. Avoid unsecured wireless connections. A Wi-Fi connection could expose your transactions to anyone else with a Wi-Fi enabled device. Sign up for e-mail and SMS test message alerts so that you’ll be notified when transactions are happening, so you can stop them right away. A recent study showed that 43 percent of all reported identity fraud cases are spotted by consumers who monitor their accounts in some fashion. You should opt for new user and address change alerts first, since these are the most common ways hackers use to take over accounts.

3. Wipe your phone clean. Remove phone books, call lists, voice mail, e-mail, texts, search histories and photos before you toss your old phone. Check your owner’s manual for details on how to permanently delete this information.

You may wish to consider installing a security program on your phone. Blackberry, Android and iPhone all offer programs to lock your phone down remotely or even delete all the information it contains.

Remember: taking extra steps to protect yourself, and your phone, may seem inconvenient, but the smarter the phone in your pocket becomes, the greater risk it presents should it become infected or go missing.

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