Mobile phones have become a Single Point of Failures
I had an epiphany a few days back when I misplaced my phone, and it took me a couple of days to find it as the phone had run out of battery. I realized that phones had become a single point of failure these days. Here are routines that I can not perform without my phone.
- When I log in to my company’s intranet portal or email, it asks me for dual-factor authentication, which I need to respond to on the phone, else I can not access my work email or my companies intranet sites
- My bank also has dual-factor authentication, I can not check my balance, nor can I do any transactions.
- My electric car is locked and unlocked using my cell phone. I do not know where I have kept my key card which I need to use in case my phone runs out of battery
- My garage door opens and closes using my phone mostly. When I go put, I can not close the garage door once I drive out. I do not remember where I have kept my remote garage door opener.
- My family can not reach me when I am in the office. My office has removed landlines for all employees. I need to keep calling back home every few hrs.
The mobile phone has become critical in our lives. We can not operate normally if we lose it. Also, it contains critical information such as your bank log-ins, stock options, company emails, and slacks. Since we do not have to enter passwords for all the apps, if someone hacks our 6-digit code, all apps on the phones are compromised. Face Ids and thumbprint authentication can easily be bypassed.
So here are some tips if safeguarding your phone before you lose it.
- Add a strong password and keep changing the code once a month
- Ensure that the phone is always charging when you are not using it. If you lose your phone, you can use apps like ‘find my phone to track your phone. I could not use this app to ping my phone because my phone had run out of battery. But the app was still useful to let me know the last ping location/
- Get your unique device info and keep it in a safe place. Just put it in an excel file, lock the excel file and email it to your family. You can get the device info by dialing *#06# from your phone. Take the screenshot and email it to your family.
- Sync your phone data to the cloud often
In case you realize that your phone is stolen or lost, you need to act sooner with the following steps.
- Call or text your phone from someone else and listen for ring or vibrator noise. If you have a computer handy, use the ‘find my phone app to find your phone. You can also remotely lock your phone.
- If the phone contains critical data, just use the ’erase the data’ option in find my phone so that no one can use that data to impersonate you and avoid financial loss
- Report the loss to the service provider using device info. The service provider can prevent your phone number from being used by disconnecting outgoing calls. They can make SIM and device also unusable if the phone is still under contract.
- Change important passwords using your computer. Go the backs in person
- Call credit bureaus and ask them to lock your credit account
- Report the loss to the police. Police can record the case and attempt to recover the phone
- Even if you recover the phone, consider wiping it clean as someone else might have bugged your phone or added malware that can sniff the data on your phone.