The digital revolution is changing the way we stay informed, purchase items, interact with others, educate ourselves, and much more. As the number of our connected “things” grows exponentially, the number of apps and related functions continue to grow rapidly as well. And at the center of it all is the smartphone, which is becoming the all-powerful universal remote to life. Take an ordinary family, for example. the kids want to play games, access social media, and take 101 selfies. Meanwhile, you and/or your wife is checking out the Fitbit (smartwatch) app and sending “cheers” or “taunts” depending on who walked more steps yesterday.

As you might have guessed, there is a long list of security challenges to be aware of, besides the Apple vs. FBI backdoor issue that that was in the news late last year. A few issues on the list include mobile malware attacks, spyware, network spoofing and denial of service.

But the biggest challenge, and the issue that I think far too many people don’t take seriously enough, is listed as No. 1 on this list: Lost and stolen devices. In my view, this issue dwarfs the others and continues to require more attention even after recent technology advances to help. In 2014 that 4.5 million smartphones were lost or stolen in the U.S. in 2013, up from 2.8 million in 2012. This information comes shortly after top phone manufacturers and wireless carriers announced their commitment to begin including basic anti-theft tools on all smartphones made after July 2015 for sale in the U.S. These tools will enable users to remotely lock their devices as well as remotely erase any data on the phones.

While more recent studies have shown that smartphone thefts are on the decline as kill switch usage grows, the numbers are still huge. Kill switch is an idea that enables the actual owner of the phone to erase all data on the phone and basically render it useless to another person. This has proven to show a decline in stolen or “lost” phones. However this is not the best method, at least not for iPhone it is not.

In 2015, apple implemented an update to all iPhone and iPad users where if a phone is stolen, you can no longer erase all the data off the phone. In order to erase the data off the phone you have to put in the users iCloud account information, both user name and password. There has been a huge decrease in stolen phones since that time because if a phone was stolen, there was nothing the theft can do with it. This has been the best method for iPhones to prevent stolen phones. I believe other phone providers have since picked up on this method and have implemented a similar technique.

Technology and security leaders need to be clearly training our employees on the good, the bad and the ugly with smartphones. But we can’t just beat staff over the head and yell: “Don’t lose your smartphone!”. Lots of people leave smartphones in rental cars, buses, taxi cabs and trams. We need more creative ways to make content “sticky” and help people be on guard against behaviors that can lead to difficult security issues. If you like to read more, like and share this article and follow my Facebook page. Thank you and Enjoy!