Every year, we seem to become more dependent on our smart phones for work. More importantly, more confidential client data, in the form of emails, documents, access to cloud storage, and other means of access are left on our phones. As a result, securing that data is increasingly important. I have addressed this issue in my blog once before but thought it worth addressing the issue once again.
The first thing you can do, if you have not already, is to secure your phone with a password. This is the easiest and most obvious form of protection. All modern iPhones and most Androids, including the Samsung Galaxy line, also have fingerprint scans for opening your phone. I recommend setting up both. With the fingerprint, you can access your phone almost as easily as a screen swipe. The password provides a backup entry if the fingerprint does not work for some reason.
Beyond the hassle of accessing your phone, I can think of two reasons people avoid it. One is that if a phone is lost, an honest person who finds it cannot return it. In my earlier post, I explained how you could set up identifying information on your start screen, which a user can see without opening the phone. Another concern is forgetting one's password and getting locked out. The IT Department already stores many of your work passwords. We are also happy to store this password as well. But to be clear, if you set or change a phone's password and do not tell us what it is, and then forget the password yourself, we have no way of accessing the phone. You cannot even reset it. You might as well throw it away and buy a new one at that point.
Beyond a password, make sure your device is encrypted. Without encryption a professional may be able to access your phone's data drive even without a password. By default, iPhones are encrypted as soon as you add a password. Android users must go through another step in settings to encrypt data.
Typically, our phones are not stolen. More commonly, we lose them. One of the best things to do is ensure there is a way to locate your phone if you lose it. By default, Android devices are set up so that you can use a locator online, as long as you have a valid Gmail account configured on the device. Your work email will suffice for this purpose.. Here is a good article on locating and wiping your lost device. The firm uses device management. If your phone has been set up properly, we will have the ability to wipe email off your phone, or wipe the device entirely.
If you use an iPhone, you must set up an iCloud account prior to losing the phone. Without this, we cannot locate the device for you. We can, however, wipe the phone's contents even with out an iCloud account. With the account, you have the ability to search for your device and locate it on a map. It greatly increases your chances of recovering your lost device. If you do not already have an iCloud account set up for your iPhone, I strongly recommend that you do so. I also recommend providing the iCloud password to the IT Department for safe keeping. Otherwise, if you forget it, having the account will be useless to you.
An iCloud account also does more than simply locate your phone. It serves as a backup device so that your pictures, files, and settings can be stored in the cloud. If a phone is list, stolen, or damaged, your iCloud can be used to restore those files and settings on a new device. It also comes in handy when upgrading your phone. An iCloud account is free for up to 5 GB. If you decide you need more space, you are on your own to pay for it. Typically, iCloud accounts get filled by pictures. You can download the pictures and store them elsewhere to save space (I recommend using Google Photos, which works with both iPhones and Androids, and offers free unlimited cloud storage of your photos).
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