It’s no longer debatable whether or not cell phones have become almost as essential to American life as water and air. You can use them to watch movies, to send pictures, to make purchases and even to bank. Since you need passwords for the last two of these activities that makes them of special interest to identity thieves. If a thief can obtain your password, he or she can control your account and create additional accounts in some cases. This can be especially dangerous when you use your cell phone for banking.
Another problem with this cell phone technology is that some cell phone networks can be hacked. For instance, Nokia 1100 phones are selling for tens of thousands of dollars on the black market because of vulnerability in the software that allows thieves to pull personal information from the phone’s network to use or sell to others. It didn’t take long for the thieves to figure out this fact, even though the hackable phones are only of this one model and only those that were made in a specific German factory. Truth is, good news travels fast. Well, it’s good news for them anyway.
The first thing you should do to protect your cell phone is to put a password on it. This will make it so no one can use it but you, since you have to key in a code every time it locks up. Make sure it locks up on a regular basis, not once every 24 hours.
Secondly, don’t store account passwords on your phone. Even if you have it locked, a thief who gets it in his or her possession can probably figure out your password if given enough time, especially if it is simply numeric, as many phones require them to be. It’s best not to let the thief get access to anything else in the process.
Here is an old post that has some general password tips.
Thirdly, when you do type in your password, either to unlock your phone or to access your account, make sure there is no one nearby looking over your shoulder. You’d be surprised how much shoulder skimmers can learn just by being in the right place at the right time.
This careful behavior should help mitigate the risk, but it won’t guarantee an identity thief won’t get your information. Over 500 million records have been stolen in the last five years containing Americans’ account information and other personal details. Most of this information was not used by identity thieves, but the potential was certainly there.
To keep yourself safe, consider buying identity theft protection. It may not keep your information, or your phone, out of a thief’s hands, but it will let you know almost as soon as it gets there. You can find out if your info is on online databases for sell or trade, even before it’s been used fraudulently. Then you can take further steps to protect it and contact the authorities to help them go after the criminals. That’s just one more thing that your cell phone can help you with.