Protect your smartphone while you play this summer

The summer season is here, which means festivals, concerts, and events for our families. We pack our sunscreen, lunches, snacks, hats, and, most importantly, our smartphones. Our smartphones have become essential to family outings; for photos, connecting with friends, locating our tweens, searching for event updates and sharing pictures with our social media followers. A recent Norton survey found that 88 per cent of Canadians said a smartphone is a must have at events, eight per cent higher than their ID.

Our smartphones are a hub of our personal data. They have our banking information, private contacts, emails, and pictures, work documents, etc. But our survey reveals that Canadians are not prepared to protect this information if their phones are lost, stolen or hacked. Many of us are unaware of the growing risks associated with mobile use at events.

Understanding we cannot leave our phones at home, we at Norton have come up with two key suggestions to ensure you and your family are safe from mobile attacks and theft:

Lock your smartphone

• Always lock your phone with a password to ensure that your data and personal information is inaccessible if your phone is lost or stolen.

Track your phone

• Our surveyed revealed that almost one third (26 per cent) of Canadians have had their smartphone stolen or lost at some point – don’t let this be you!
• Install security software like Norton 360 Multi-Device ahead of time. That way, if your phone or tablet is stolen or lost, you can remotely locate, lock and wipe it to prevent anyone from accessing your personal data.