Losing phone is a great loss, that’s true but it can be much more catastrophic than just a loss. It can be incurably damaging, devastating, detrimental, and even life threatening. You don’t believe? You find it a hoax or something? Just one thing, you got to be careful and keep your cell phone safe in every possible way because a mobile theft or loss can harm you beyond imagination.

If you disbelieve what I’m trying to say, all you got to do is read the following news report, a story that is bound to get you goose bumps. About a month back, Amanda, a young and beautiful woman from Long Beach was happily celebrating her 22nd birthday. She was at a bar in San Francisco and was celebrating her birthday in extremely wonderful mood unaware that her happiness will soon be lost.

The bar was the place where her phone got lost. Losing her iPhone was indeed the biggest nightmare of her life; not because iPhone don’t come cheap but because it contained some of her explicit pictures that she had clicked both of herself and her boyfriend. Soon after losing her phone she started getting emails from some stranger who threatened her that he’d be distributing her explicit photographs to all her friends and connections on Facebook and Twitter, if she wouldn’t pay him $5,000.

Amanda was smart enough to cancel the wireless service on her phone on the very day when she had lost the phone but sadly her FB and Twitter accounts had her logging in credentials saved on the phone which she couldn’t change. Moreover, she hadn’t protected her phone with passcode lock.

She did manage to hire a private investigator handling Internet criminal offences who helped her know that the emails were coming from Peru and perhaps the phone was with some professional criminals engaged in selling stolen iPhones across the globe.

How she wished she had deleted all her photographs or have at least not saved the logging in credentials on the social sites that she accessed through her phone. Even if she had passcode locked her phone, there would have been some security at the least.

Had her phone some iPhone security software or similar technology installed, she could have remotely locked her phone or simply deleted away every sensitive data from the phone remotely and stayed safe and sound. Unfortunately, this wasn’t so with her phone.

Notably, she had deactivated her phone line but as the data could be accessed through any Wi-Fi network, the extortionist got hold of all her sensitive data and started blackmailing her.

The bottom line is simple

                                            – YOUR MOBILE IS NOT SAFE – 

                                    – YOU NEED TO BE CAUTIOUS –

And one most reliable way of doing this is to install iPhone anti theft on your phone. Hope you’ll not be as careless as Amanda and suffer unnecessarily the way she did. Wish you Best of Safety!  Keep your loving phone well protected!!

Reference :

The three words that describe an iPhone are preeminent, popular, and praiseworthy. But along with its fame and marvel it shares more love and more importance among the league of heist, thieves, and pick-pockets. It automatically becomes essential to take precautionary steps to keep your iPhone safe.

Below you have some of the Tried and Tested security Tips to avoid getting your iPhone stolen.

Be Sure to Be Cautious in Buses & Trains

Thieves indeed love these places; in fact, bus stops, train stations and the subways are their most favourite haunts. So you got to be cautious if you are in any of these places. So don’t hold your phone in your hands instead keep it safe in your bag, pouch, or pockets and keep an eye on the surroundings and people around you. Don’t get hooked up at your mobile, all the time looking down and not at all looking around. Also avoid the back pockets of your jeans or the backpacks instead stick to the front pockets and the bags that can be shut with zippers.

Avoid People Asking For Time, Change, and Sundry

Robbing a person standing still or stealing things from a person who has suddenly stopped in the middle of the way is the easiest of all. Thus, the most thieves play this trick on their victims by asking them for time, change, address, direction, even cigarette, and so on. When somebody asks you for time do not at all bring out your mobile to check the time, the asker may be thief waiting for this very moment to run away with your phone. Either guess the time or simply say you don’t know. Even while tell the direction or helping somebody with addresses, don’t at all try stopping instead just keep walking on.

Are Walking Down the Street with your iPhone?

If your answer is “Yes”, take care of the things given below.

First, never stop walking if anyone tries to stop you by asking you about certain things.

Second, keep looking around your surroundings and keep your head up all the time don’t get stuck to your mobile typing a text or doing something similar.

Third, don’t bring out your phone to check the time especially when some stranger has asked you the time.

Time to Change those Apple Earphones

You love those Apple earphones? Can’t stay without them? They are the best one the market? Everything is true, right, fine and acceptable but with a sad fact added to it – your Apple earphones have special signature style that makes them unique and quite conspicuous. So, if you have them and really love them (like most apple product users do), simply keep them safe in your bag, instead use some other earphones compatible with your iPhone.

What are you wondering? Do you think that if you don’t have an iPhone 5, you’re safe? Nopes! Nopes! Nopes! iPhones are always phenomenal whether new or old, they will surely catch the attention of the thieves. Truly, your iPhone 5 earphones are most attractive but even the older ones can easily be located by thieves so better order some new earphones on the internet and get the ones those don’t have the appearance of a typical Apple product!

Don’t Carry Any Clue that You Own an iPhone!

Whether an earphone, an iPhone case, a charger, or just the boxes and bags with Apple trademark, they shouldn’t be with you at all, neither in your hands nor in your car at the parking lot, this will give hints to the thieves about your iPhone.

Use iPhone Security Software

There are plenty many of iphone security applications in the market, simply get the one most suitable for you and your phone. Installing mobile security solution on your iPhone will indeed be the most reliable way of keeping your phone safe. The best of the apps will keep the device and data well protected for you and will even help you locate the lost phone and the thief behind the loss.

So, don’t forget to empower your iPhone with proper security application and stay free from worries.

You’ve Just Shopped your New iPhone? What to Do Next to Keep it Safe?

Thieves and burglars looking for a new iPhone always keep trailing around the Apple stores and the shoppers who have just bought the device. Well, the simple reason behind it is that brand new device with no scratch and no activation records are sold the best and have the most terrific demand in the market.

Don’t let the thieves know that you’ve really shopped something at the Apple store and you have a brand new iPhone with you. Either do away with the Apple bags and boxes or keep all your things safe in some other bag, away from the eyes of the thieves around you.

Keep Safe, Stay Safe, Have Things Safe!! Good Luck for your iPhone Safety!!

Losing your cell phone can be murderous. It simply takes your breath away and when you realize that your phone had some confidential data on it, you are almost dead, as if strangulated!!  And the thing is far worse when you’re holidaying away from home in some entirely unknown territory. So, what you’re going to do to find lost phone in some unknown place where you have come for holiday.

Your last minute tips to find your lost phone at some unknown place :

Try Finding it Out

Though the chances appear pretty trim, there is absolutely no harm in trying at least once. Simply telling yourself that you’d never get the phone back, forget it, move on doesn’t make any sense, trust me. It is like throwing in the towel when you’ve not tried even once.

So, wherever you’re at the moment start the search thing, if it is a beach ask the people around you, each one of them, it may sound weird or kind of a Mission Impossible. But who knows if some good hearted citizen around really helps you find the lost phone.

Or suppose you’re at some restaurant, ask the person at the reception area to help you out or the waiter who had been waiting your table, and don’t feel shy to look around even if other find you a bit mad.

Inform Authoritative People

First of all, try to reach the local police station and lodge a complaint and take a copy of the FIR to be submitted to your insurance company to get the claim amount without delay. Next, inform your mobile service provider about the loss so that they can block the SIM and there is no further misuse of the number.

Save your Personal Information

Sad that you’ve lost your phone but why letting the thieves misuse your personal information now? If you have been accessing your email account, and social sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or have been shopping on some of the shopping sites through your cell phone shopping apps, there are possibility of your passwords getting hacked. So, somebody else might be tweeting around using your name or perhaps sending mails on your name.

Sounds pretty pathetic? But this situation just won’t come up if you install mobile security software on your phone as it will let you handle your phone remotely. So, it will be possible for you to delete away all your personal information from your phone remotely and even block your phone, thus making it safe from being misused.

If you haven’t got any mobile security technology already working on your phone, simply get online and change all your passwords immediately. This will keep your mailbox, and other Internet accounts safe.

Taking Precautions

Before you’ve already started up your journey all set for holidaying out, empower your phone with some security software, so that it becomes easier to locate your phone in case it gets lost or stolen. Password lock your phone, if you have not already set any password code to it, do it before you leave for the holiday. Delete away all the confidential information from your phone if they have nothing to do while you’re holidaying out. Delete away your logging in credentials for all your email services as well as for your accounts on various online sites and communities.

Is the data on your cell phone really safe? You said “yes”, that’s good but what parts of your data are safe in actuality? The stuffs saved on it, your credentials, and other useful things, these are all? Your pictures, videos, and emails, too? That’s a real good thing to know but what about the contacts saved on your phonebook? When you’re looking forward to keep your cell phone safe, including the data on it, the phonebook needs to be dealt with equal importance.

How Unsafe is your Phonebook?

What exactly do you mean by data safety or by the safety of the contact details saved on your phone book? You may consider data to be unsafe only when a phone gets lost or stolen or stealthily hacked by somebody to reach your data? But there still are conditions and considerations where the data on your phone is under threat like an accident damaging your phone and the entire operating system on it?

It can also be a virus attack or some other sudden trouble deleting away every single thing on your phone. Sometimes it is just your foolishness, when you unknowingly or without being cautious check “Yes” or “Ok” message on your phone which then leads to deletion of certain files and folders.

Why Alone Phonebook is Most Unsafe?

If you’re one of those who believe in staying online 24×7 and access internet as well as read emails through your mobile phone, it is an obvious you keep a regular back up of your emails and other data. And sometimes by simply saving your data on your email account you make them safe. And even those photographs that you randomly click, or the stuffs you save on your mobile are still safer as you do think of saving them on your computer or laptop or directly online by signing in to Google Docs, Dropbox, SkyDrive, etc but do you ever think of keeping the contact number on your phonebook saved in some safe place? Hardly ever, or perhaps never, right?

How can you Make your Phonebook Safe?

It is as simple as is saving anything else on your mobile phone. But, the first thing you have to do is to deal as seriously with your phonebook contact as you do with other data on your phone.

The easiest and handiest of all is to write them down in some diary, now this is a bit tedious and will have to be dealt manually taking away a lot of your time. Most people won’t appreciate it in the dawn of tech-savvier approach of the day.

Second, is to save your phone book contacts just the way you save other important documents online on Google Docs, Dropbox, etc.

Third, use some phone security app on your phone that keeps your cell phone safe in every possible way as well as help you keep your phonebook contact safe by offering you remote backup feature which lets you backup your phone book even when your phone is not around you. This feature works the best in case your phone gets misplaced, lost or stolen.

Your electronic devices especially cell phones and smart phones are serving more in introducing danger to your life than helping in rescuing and keeping you safe lately. In fact, mobile thieves and snatchers sometimes don’t even spare the life of their victim and the cases of these criminals using weapons like gun against their victim to steal away their electronic devices are vehemently increasing. And if you happen to be a women user, you’re more at risk.

It is high time that you get serious about your cell phone safety and security as well as your own security from these hard hearted criminals who just can’t see anything but your electronic devices and the money that they make by selling them on the black market.

Several women speaking on their cell phones or texting around while walking through the city streets, especially the down town areas of the US cities are found to have faced serious robbery in which the criminals had hit the victim and run away grabbing their phone. Police in these areas have warned the women mobile users not to be too indulged in their phones talking or texting while walking down the streets.

The main reason behind the growing number of cell phone robbery and theft cases is partially the intense demand of these devices and partially the careless behaviour of the women walking with their phones in hand.  They get so much lost in texting that they don’t even lift their heads up to look around for long periods of time that make them easy victims of phone theft by the snatch and grab type of thieves.

Police has advised cell phone users to check their backgrounds before using their phones and also not to become too indulgent in their phone while walking through the streets or traveling in public buses or subways as the mobile snatching cases are found to be involving the public transport vehicles as well.  In many such cases, the thieves were found sitting by the exit of the bus and snatch and run wherever the bus stopped and the victim could hardly do anything, either because she was totally involved in the cell phone and couldn’t believe this to happen or the criminal carried some kind of weapon and assaulted the victim before running away with the phone.

So, if you are a woman mobile user and have a habit of getting entirely lost in your mobile while calling, texting or mailing, better avoid using your phone while walking through the streets and always look around to make sure of the surroundings you are in. Also keep your phone in some safe place from where it isn’t that easy for the thief to steal away the phone from you.  And finally use some mobile security program on it to keep it safe. And to stay safe better learn how to combat people with weapons.

Reference :

Women warned of recent increase in phone thefts

A mobile phone theft or loss generally proves far more than just a loss, as it is not only your device that is gone forever leading to financial setback but also your data on the phone and a risk of identity theft hangs on your head like a Damocles sword.

Below you have the Do’s and Don’ts :

First, let’s have a look at the Do’s :

If your phone is still intact and you don’t want it to get lost and if you want to improve the chances of finding out your phone if misplaced, simply follow the points given below.

First, restrict the access to your phone only up to you by password protecting it.

Second, make the screen lock function auto-set that too for really less amount of time, so that nobody gets the chance to access it.

Third, keep a check on your device all the time especially in the public places.

Fourth, keep a proper record of things that will help you identify your phone if lost. These include serial number, make/model of your mobile, ESN, special identification marks or properties (if it has any).

Fifth, place a special contact information on your phone so that the finder (obviously, if a good one) can contact you.

Sixth, buy an insurance policy for your cell phone if it is an expensive one, this will mitigate the financial setback if you lose your cell phone.

These were the list of things to do to keep your phone safe when you have it with you. Next you have the list of things to do once you have lost your phone. These will improve the chances of reaching your lost phone as well as help you avoid data or identity theft.

Be quick and immediate in reporting the phone loss or theft to the police whether or not it is a criminal case.

If you are sure it hasn’t been stolen and it is the case of loss turn to the lost and found department or similar establishment of your city to get the loss recorded.

If your cell phone was also a device to handle your office work and you think that your work related data left saved on it, inform the IT department of your company without wasting any time so that your employment policies doesn’t get dissolved.

If you had got insurance policy for your mobile, contact to your insurance provider to check out how much of the loss can be covered by the policy.

Get the services to your phone discontinued or get the SIM blocked by your cellular service provider.

If you suspect it hasn’t been stolen and it is just the case of loss or misplacement, send a message to it with contact details for its recovery.

If your phone has some cell phone security software installed on it, give all the details of it to police and also use the information that get recorded on it for the recovery of your phone.

Use your phone’s security technology generously in making out all possible details of the phone like its location, the calls received and made through it, SIM exchange, etc  – - all that your security technology providers offer you.

Below is the list of Don’ts that you got to follow to recover your lost phone :

Don’t try directly confronting anybody whom you suspect to possess your lost mobile device. This will be like inviting trouble.

Don’t try going to recover your lost device on your own if your mobile security app suggest you the location. It can be dangerous, better involve police in the scene.

Don’t be over-sure about the location tracked by your security app, mobile GPS location tracking apps work well but they don’t follow total precision in accuracy.

Don’t trust the person completely who tries to contact you for getting your phone back for a reward, better introduce the person to police.

Don’t be too rude or harsh if you get to know that somebody has got your phone, perhaps the person unknowingly bought the phone from somebody. If the person happens to be innocent you may get to face civil action against you.

If you’ve a notion that a loss or theft of a cell phone is something like dropping your phone somewhere or leaving it out at some place because of your forgetfulness, or else somebody stealing it from your handbag, office desk, eatery table, you’re partially right but not completely.  As most of the loss and theft cases coming up lately are more serious crimes like mugging and snatching which even involve physical assault of the victim.

And sadly, kids are being victimized more in the latest phone theft cases. More or less, the UK has most number of child victims, here the mobile thieves attack the kids the more, perhaps because it is really easy to target a kid. In London alone, two thirds of the mobile phone theft victims are found to be in the age group of 13 and 16. And the number of mobile phones stolen every month is equally disappointing as about 10,000 phones are reported to be stolen on a monthly basis.

The rise in the theft cases is also a result of increase in the demand of expensive smart phones.  These are first stolen and then sold on the black market at great prices making huge money to the thieves. Again taking a look at the stolen phone data of London alone, it is indeed shocking, quite an unbelievable number, above 170 iPhones getting stolen every day, according to Freedom of Information Act by The Times.

Coming to other places of the UK, you find about 40% of mobile phone thefts in Nottinghamshire are pertaining to people below the age of 21 and in Cheshire, it gets though 5% less yet quite much at being 35%. Again in Hertfordshire 32% of cell phone theft victims happen to be below 20 years old and about 28% of people belonging to the same age group are victimized in Cumbria.

Many schools in the UK have started taking help from the police by having them stationed outside the school campuses and there are still others providing self-defense classes to the kids to stay safe from the muggers. According to a UK based news daily, the cell phone mugging cases involving kids in the age group of 10 to 15 year old  have increased by 40% in Humberside and involving the victims in the age group of 16 and 20 year old have increased by 30% in Kent.

One may think what on earth the kids in their pre-teen do with mobile phones, it is actually their parents providing them with phone for safety but ironically, it puts them in a greater danger.  Some believe that it is essential for the parents to provide their kids with mobile; it is equally essential for them to make its use safer for their kids by arming it up with security software as well as educating the kids how to stay safe from the muggers.

 Reference :-

The teen smartphone mugging epidemic: Two-thirds of mobile theft victims in London are children or young adults

If you are relaxed and not at all worrying about your mobile and happen to believe that it won’t be facing any kind of possible threat, you’re wrong. Here’s a list of deadliest of the threats that your mobile may face in the coming year. Some of these threats have already been creating nuisance but now their level of nuisance creation will get increased. To secure mobile phone you need to know about these threats in detail.

More Active Denial-Of-Service Attack

The coming year will make DDoS attacks more than just active. Are you wondering how this will prove dangerous or deadly? With DDoS you’ll get all wrong data that will hamper you while handling your online banking account, etc. This is a well known way of dismantling all the high profile web servers like banks, gateways for making credit card payments, etc. A smart hacker can use this method to take you to wrong site and make you take all wrong steps harming you a lot.

Malware Threat taking a Bigger shape

There are real bad malware working at a real bad ways already. In the recent times, there has been a real big trouble introduced by Eurograbber, which drafted out some 36 million Euros out of 30,000 bank accounts across Europe, sounds frightening? It actually is very frightening indeed. Eurograbber worked in a real bad way on several smart phone platforms like Android and BlackBerry. The researches suggest that similar to this malware threat there will be several new and more damaging ones will be all set to harm you. Malware like Zeus, etc will get more sophisticated.

Employees with BYOD will be Targeted More

Although BYODs have already been targeted by cyber criminals, 2013 will increase the threat to the personal devices used by the employees; in fact the hackers will especially target these devices to make the maximum benefit from these.

Biggest Targets would be Credit Union Employees

These employees use their personal devices such as laptops, iPads, or mobile phones for connecting the network of their institution to the credit union will be most targeted by the cyber criminals.

Sophistication of Cybercrime

You’ll get to see newest kind of malicious software some of them will extort money from you by smartly using the online payment method. These so called Ransomware will be more smartly made and will be using professional ransom screens confusing up the users completely.

Then there will be a new kind of mobile adware known as insanity-Mobile adware or Madware that will steal away all the information on your cell phone like contact details, and expose the location details and the device identification to the cyber criminals. This will do potential harm as well as interrupt in the working of your device.

The mobile apps available for free will substitute a big part of the threat to your mobile phone and data on it as well as your e-payments and other money transactions that you handle using your cell phone.

Cyber Crime is increasing at a real fast rate and now in the coming year the cyber criminals are all set to target the mobile phones to reach their criminal goals. If you have been thinking it is safe to handle money, go shopping, and have personal details saved on your mobile, you may be wrong at least this is what the predictions about the possible mobile threats for the year 2013 are saying. So, be alert to handle various cell phone security threats going to surround your device in the coming year.

Below is a list of possible threats that your mobile may face in the coming year.

Cross Platform Threats to Grip your Mobile Device.

Cyber criminals are busy developing most high-tech tools to make their criminal activities successful. And the coming year will have got the tools successfully created. There will be special exploitative kits exclusively meant for the mobile devices. Your internet surfing orgy through your cell phone can prove real bad deal for your poor phone and the stuff you keep safe on it. The moment you’ll enter a malicious website, your cell phone will be attacked by deadliest of malware. As if being commanded to shoot at sight! This special malware will have special power to figure out which mobile device you are using – Android, iOS, or Windows 8 and will infect your device with specific kind of malware accordingly.

Mobile Application Stores Legally Selling Apps will Now Offer Malware.

As if walking through a lane full of thieves all set to attack you anytime, just no idea whom to trust and for whom have the mistrust saved; well this is what is all set to happen on the cyber space in 2013. So, the legitimate app stores online selling mobile apps too will turn untrustworthy as they’ll not shy from hosting malware. The hackers will get efficient enough to make place on authentic sites stealthily and thus reach your device pretty easily.

Safe Looking Sites will Hack your Information.

Now, this is a thing which is already happening at a real great rate, so what is reserved for the coming year? It will take an upper gear now. Sites would now be behaving rude, they will be collecting large amount of data from your device, yes it will surely take your approval first, but the way your data is then used will be wrong. Your data is then hacked from the systems of the developer and misused by the cyber criminals or is transmitted to the criminals through their malicious application to be misused on a deadly large scale.

Hacking will take more Powerful Form.

Hackers will now have learned far more sophisticated tricks to creep inside the computing and mobile devices as well as the websites. In the coming year, hackers will be making their places in the virtual environments as well as the sandboxes making their entry into the main network easier.

Personal Cloud as well as BYOD will Bring Bigger Threat to the IT.

The IT security departments are already suffering from security threats because of BYOD system but the personal cloud will add to this and there will be more data loss than before and securing the data from loss from the employee’s personal cloud system will pose more security questions.

Malicious Mobile Apps & Emails will Increase Cyber Crime.

Emails containing malicious programs have always been a big threat and an entirely separate industry dealing with spamming, scamming and malicious mails have come into being many years back ever since the threat came into existence, now the same will go a step ahead with malicious mobile applications that will target the mobile devices harming them substantially.

Using a credit or debit card for every day expenses and making all the sundry payments is indeed the easiest possible way to handle money and when you do this via your mobile phone, it gets far easier and handier but is it really safe? Well, your intelligent little smartphone which is pretty vulnerable to the mesh of mobile hacking which is kind of arresting every next mobile phone being used for important money transactions.

Below you have Tips to Keep your Credit & Debit Card Number Safe from Thieves

1. Never be lazy to visit the exact banking site to which your debit card is related whenever you have to do online banking. The rule of the thumb here is to type the website address in the address bar while accessing the internet through your mobile phone as your bookmarks can get some changes made or errors included.

2. Even when you have the habit of typing the URL of your banking website in the address bar don’t forget to verify and never enter any information until you are sure that it is exactly the site where you should have landed on to. This is important because if your mobile has already got hacked, the hacker would either make changes with the bookmarks or play some messing up game to get your bank URL redirected to his personal website or a fake website for the bank. There have been many such cases in which people handling their online bank accounts through mobile phones lost their banking credentials to the hackers.

3. Be sure to check your bank statements every month. This is really important to be aware of any kind of identity theft or credit card number theft. You also need to be aware of all the charges on your statement and be alert with anything suspicious. If you find even a single charge on your statement of which you are sure that you didn’t authorize, contact your credit card company or the bank associated with it immediately informing them about the unauthorized charges on your statement.

4. Get hold of a free copy of your credit report from the globally recognized credit reporting agencies once in a year to protect your credit as well as your identity. This kind of occasional report checking will help you know if there has been any identity theft or if anybody else is getting the credit on your name. In case, you find your identification being stolen, immediately contact the internationally recognized credit reporting agencies, Equifax and TransUnion.

5. Avoid storing your credit or debit card details on your mobile phone. But sometimes your details get stored without your knowledge. So, be very careful in making payments through your mobile phone or while accessing your online bank account. Always keep your phone locked with PIN or Password lock. And don’t choose a very simply Password for locking your phone.

6. Install mobile security software on your phone to keep it safe all the time. This makes is possible for you to lock your phone remotely, in case you forget to password lock it; delete away your confidential data including the credit & debit card numbers and other such credentials remotely to ensure safety which is really important for you if you regularly make mobile payments. And finally,you can figure out the location of your phone which proves helpful if your phone containing confidential data gets lost or stolen.