Smartphone As Your Most Dangerous Possession 154
Hugh Pickens writes "CNN reports that now that smartphones double as wallets and bank accounts — allowing users to manage their finances, transfer money, make payments, deposit checks and swipe their phones as credit cards — smartphones have become very lucrative scores for thieves and with 30% of phone subscribers owning iPhones, BlackBerrys and Droids, there are a lot of people at risk. Storing a password and keeping your phone locked is a good start, but it's not going to protect you from professional fraudsters. 'Don't think that having an initial password set on your phone can stop people from getting in there,' says
Nikki Junker, a victim advisor at the Identity Theft Resource Center. 'It's a very low level of protection — you can even find 30-second videos on how to crack smartphone passwords on YouTube.'"
And how many people actually protect their phone (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd also like to know which devices can be cracked in 30 seconds. With iPhone 4's full device encryption, I don't see how the key can be cracked in under 10 tries before it would wipe itself. But, I'd like to know.
It Can Get Worse... (Score:3, Interesting)
Throw in one of these [squareup.com], and you're looking at truly ridiculous amounts of pain if you lose your phone.
Re:I do not think that word means what you think i (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, that's true. Any suitably light-fingered individual is well qualified to attempt to lift my phone out of my front pants pocket, provided that they don't mind taking the chance that I might smash their brains in.
But then I personally think it's incredibly stupid to put any kind of financial details on anything that is so easily and casually stolen. I don't even leave such information lying around (at least in a form that is worth the trouble of attempting to decrypt) on my computers at home where I can guarantee a larger degree of security.