LONDON (AP) — Phones are so integral to our digital lives — emails, social media and bank accounts, photos, chat messages and more — that if they’re stolen or lost, it can cause significant disruption without loss to the device.
In some areas, phone theft is so common that it is now a daily problem, as thieves on electric bikes snatch them from pedestrians, push them off restaurant tables or smash them. inside the train.
In Britain, where 200 phones are stolen every day in “theft,” the government has pledged crack on crime and meets with technology companies and device manufacturers to come up with solutions.
Here are the steps you can take before and after your phone goes missing:
Basic security
There are things you can do to ease the pain of having your phone stolen. Since some of these features are more technical, people often overlook them.
Lock down as much as you can. At the very least, you need a key or biometric to unlock the device. You can add similar requirements to important individual applications – such as your bank account, WhatsApp or Signal – to protect your finances or communications from thieves.
Also, activate the find my app, available for iOS and Android. Samsung also offers its own service called SmartThings Find.
You probably have a lot of valuable photos saved in your camera roll. It’s a good idea to save them, along with contacts, calendar items and other files. Google and Apple offer cloud-based backup services, although the free versions have limited storage space. You can also save your files to an external hard drive, memory card or laptop.
Some police and phone companies recommend turning off message previews, which prevents hackers trying to get into your accounts from seeing reset codes or logins. the phone is locked. To do this on an iPhone, for example, go to the Notifications section of your menu and tap Show Previews. You can scroll down the list of apps to turn off previews for individual apps, but leave them on for less serious ones like news or weather.
Download new features
The latest iOS and Android updates include a number of new functions designed to make hacking less attractive.
iPhone users can turn on Stolen Device Protectionwhich makes it very difficult for phone thieves to access important functions and settings. Many thieves will want to erase the data and reorganize it so they can resell it, but as this feature continues, they will need to scan their face or fingerprints to do so. Apple recently updated ” activation key ” feature to make it harder for thieves to sell stolen phone parts.
Meanwhile, Android phones can use artificial intelligence to detect the movement of someone who has stolen your hand, and run on foot or bike, and lock the screen immediately. And there’s a feature called Private Spaces that lets you hide important files on your phone.
Enter your device number
Take note of your phone’s serial number, also known as the IMEI number. It can connect you to the phone if it eventually recovers. Call it by typing (star)#06# on your phone’s keypad. If you have lost your phone you can find it in other places like the box it came in.
If it is stolen
If you are unlucky enough to have your phone stolen, notify the police. Call your insurance company if you have a policy that covers the device. Notify your phone company to redial your number and issue a SIM card or for example. Notify your bank so they can monitor suspicious transactions.
Depending on your device
Try to find your phone I found my device. For iPhones, go to iCloud.com/find from the web browser while Android users should go to www.google.com/android/find. Samsung has it too service for Galaxy phones.
These services will show your phone’s location or last known location on a map, which is helpful if you’ve recently lost your location somewhere in the house. Apple says even a phone can’t connect online or off, it can use Bluetooth to ping any nearby Apple devices using the same network behind its AirTags tracking devices. Google says New Pixel phones can be found “a few hours” after they’re turned off using the same technology.
You can make the phone play a sound, even on silent. You can also install the phone lose stylewhich locks and displays a message and contact information on the screen for anyone who finds it. The lost mode on iOS also stops Apple Pay cards and passes.
If a device appears in an unfamiliar location on the map, and you suspect it has been stolen, experts say it’s better to notify the police rather than trying to recover it.
Cybersecurity company Norton says, “It is not recommended to confront the thief yourself.”
Final steps
If you can’t find your phone, there are some final steps to take.
Log in to all your accounts that can be accessed on the phone, then remove it from the list of trusted apps you use to get multifactor authentication codes – but make sure you can get the codes elsewhere, like by email.
Then, as a last resort, you can wipe the phone remotely so that there is no chance of any data falling into the wrong hands. However, be careful: Apple says that if the iPhone is offlineremote deletion will only happen the next time it comes back online. But if you get the phone before it is canceled, you can cancel the request.
Google warn that SD memory cards attached to Android phones may not be erased remotely. And after the phone is erased, it won’t show up and find my device.
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