You don’t need to be an NSA target to want to keep your personal data secure. Mobile phones and tablets are particularly tricky when it comes to security because they’re so easily lost or stolen. In this age of spying  and hacking, it’s even more critical to reconsider what we’re storing on our devices and what would happen if they got into the wrong hands (or your personal information gets leaked).

  Three things you can do to secure your smartphone or tablet:

  1. Set up the screen lock. (You’ll find it under the security settings of your device.) Like other passwords, you should make the PIN or password for your mobile device as long as possible–without driving              yourself crazy. After all, you do have to enter it each time to unlock the phone.

  2. Encrypt the device. For the utmost assurance hackers can’t use the information on your mobile device even if they get past the lock screen. See how to encrypt your iOS or Android device here.

3. Turn on remote wipe. Google recently added Android Device Manager so you can remotely erase Android devices or find them if they’re lost. iPhone similarly has a “Find My iPhone” feature (which you should lock down further to prevent thieves from turning it off). I have an older article about remote wipe which covers some older/other platforms.

These simple steps will give you peace of mind and protect you in the worst case scenario.

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