Smartphone users tend to take account of the missing lock up-Seattle Times

Probably you have the door is locked when you leave Home, do not leave the keys in the ignition when you're in the 7-11 milk and have at least some form of security software on your computer.

But how about your Smartphone?

For many people phone these days is a mobile office, crammed with valuable contacts, digital portfolio, from which you buy songs on iTunes or shoes on Amazon, and the portal to your online bank account.

Instead of locking phones as bank Treasury most Smartphone owners treat their devices with great concern, as monopoly money.

According to a study by security vendor Symantec 54% of smartphone users do not have a password to lock the phone when they them or them to wake up after sleep mode.

"I think there is a defined gap awareness right now," says Mark Kanok, group product manager for Mobile Division of Symantec Norton.

"Only for a few years, your phone is a phone. Then came the iPhone and people downloaded applications. People began to ask questions, ' how is this will affect my privacy, what happens if I lose it, "things like this."

In the upper part of the dangers posed by your phone is lost or stolen, there is also a growing number of malicious apps intended to steal data from it or rack up huge text accounts.

Last week, Google downloaded several dozens of free apps from its Android market, which was filled with damaging code.

Symantec, assessed that the apps are downloaded anywhere from 50 000 to 200 000 times within four days before they have been downloaded.

John Thode, Vice President and General Manager of the mobility group in del said many smartphone users do not realize the value of the device until it is gone.

"The reality is that when you lose your phone or your phone breaks, there is instant panic that comes around," he said. "Holy smokes, where are my contacts? How to get back all his life? "

Concern is raised when an employer begins to give smartphones to their workers or allow those workers who connect their personal devices with the corporate network, says Maria Chan, Vice President of the passage of an enterprise mobile solutions division. The Chan group started, security systems and procedures for mobile devices in corporate networks.

She says, can reduce compromise phone with access to the corporate network.

"I think that most of it and CIO everything really are concerned about the management of device management, what is the load on the device," she says.

Chan pointed to evaluation by the research company Gartn?r, that around 300 million smartphones will be connected to the corporate networks by 2015, with about half of these devices are personal tools for employees.

Similar consultations

A large part of the security advice for individual smartphone users and corporate heads of overlap.

Install only trusted applications to your phone.

Use Web-based programs that allow you to remotely track or delete all data on your Smartphone, if it fails.

Not be carried out financial transactions in a public or unfamiliar Wi-Fi networks where your data may pass through hacker router.

Employers may also take additional steps, Chan said, such as the hire of employees installing apps only preapproved list.

Another possibility is keeping valuable corporate data only available online, instead of letting the individual users who download it to their phones.

Tools

Phone makers and software developers are pushing some of these tools of smartphone users.

Apple, for example, offers free software to the iPhone and iPad that allows users to remotely, set the password lock, if the device is lost or stolen, grieved geographical or even to delete all data from the machine as a last resort.

Norton Mobile security for Android devices to include malware scanner designed to catch crooked applications before they bite.

Even with the protection of technological mind of the consumer can go a long way.

With simple games and screensaver applications, for example, must not be a request for permission to access your text messages. If they do not, you're more likely good canceling installation.

Strong protection software and individual concerns will become even more important over the next few years as handset manufacturers and carriers adopt technology that will turn your phone into a wireless digital portfolio.

The so-called near field communication or NFC, systems must life more convenient, allowing you to store your credit and debit cards and, finally, your driver's license digital phone.

You will simply wave your phone over the scanner in the cash register to pay and is on the road.

Purpose of thieves

But as our phones become more valuable to us, they will also become a target for thieves.

"After the NFC starts happening, you will see hackers enter this area in a much more significant way," said Thode in the del.

Apple is rumored to be including NFC chip in next-generation iPhone expected this summer, and Samsung has already released NFC-equipped link S.

Kanok Norton, said the growing need for better protection of the Smartphone seems to be sinking.

"I think the case is slightly lagging behind where we are on the PC front," he said. "But I think the sensitivity is picked up during the last year."

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