Unlike your
average pick pocket or petty thief whose main objective for stealing your smartphone
is to resell it for the money…there is a new brand of thief who is tech savvy
and after so much more than just the few bobs he can get from reselling you device.
He wants more. He wants your entire life - you bank accounts, you family members’
contacts, your car, your house, your wife - in fact if he can just have your entire
identity then he will be sorted for life.
So while
the average thief will steal your smartphone, format/wipe it and resell it, the
real value for the tech savvy thief is what
is stored within and he is sharp
enough - or knows someone who is - to get it.
So how do you protect yourself against this smarter-than-average thief, how do you move beyond simple password locking of your devices and into a more secure space which will have this guy scratching himself bald?
How about
encrypting your data? Encrypting your data makes it so much harder for someone
to access your data and could mean the difference between a minor inconvenience
and you spending countless hours on the phone, in traffic and shuttling from
one government office to another trying to restore your identity, not a nice
experience in Kenya believe me.
Encryption
has been around since ancient Egyptian times in the form of non-standard
hieroglyphs, which was a method of symbolic substitution for words and phrases.
It has since evolved over time and grown more sophisticated as technology has
evolved bringing with it threats in the form of viruses, hackers and identity
thieves and the need to shield against them.
Encryption does not prevent hacking but it reduces the likelihood that
the hacker will be able to read the encrypted data.
Again,
please note that encryption is not the same as password protecting your device,
encryption unlike standard password protection alters your data into an
unreadable format that can only be decrypted and read by someone who has the
key. Standard password protection leaves
the data as is and someone only has to crack the password or bypass it and they
will have access to all your data. When encrypted, your data in basically
rendered useless and not worth a dime to the unauthorized eye.
For
portable devices like your Smartphones, tables and laptops, encrypting is
critical because these devices are easily lost or stolen and thus highly
susceptibility to unauthorized data breaches.
If you use your phone to do online banking and shopping most likely you
have also stored on it sensitive personal and company information to allow you
easy access to this services. You would not want that information falling into
the wrong hands would you? Protect you device! Protect yourself and your
family!
Different
phone makes and models have different procedures and requirements and that is
why you need to consult your phone manual. For the Android users, OS 3.0 and above, the
encryption feature is available but the user needs to enable it. Once this
feature is enabled (To turn on go to
Settings > Security) you will need to enter a passcode into the phone every
time you power it on. Be warned however that the process of encrypting and
decrypting will affect the general performance of your device because it uses
resources on the device. Depending on
how much data you have on the device, when you turn on your phone with
encryption, it will take quite some time to decipher all your information
before you can use it.
Almost all other smartphones including Blackberry and Windows phones have an encryption feature built into their OS and if not, there are applications available online that you can download to help you do this.
Don’t put yourself in a vulnerable position by living your data unprotected when there are a combination of protective security measures readily available to you, Encryption being one.
