October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. and for week 4 of 6 we are going over the importance of locking your devices.
Let’s make a list of all of your devices that have private information on them, whether it’s personal information like your bank account numbers or business information like a customer’s credit card number:
- Desktop
- Laptop
- Tablet
- Smart Phone
- Children’s Devices
Now that you have your list, think of all the places those devices go, especially the more mobile ones. Both professional hackers and dishonest people are everywhere, just waiting for the opportunity to snag your device, whether it be physically or virtually. And if you wouldn’t leave your house with the front door wide open, let’s not leave your devices unlocked… especially when they are unattended.
Not only should you manually lock/logoff of your devices when you are done with them or leave the office for the day, but you should even set them to manually lock after a certain amount of time not in use. For your computers, go to your System Preferences to set this time. For your smartphones and tablets, add in an extra layer of security with a PIN number. Here’s a quick reminder from Google Privacy on the importance of locking everything!
Real World Examples
We’ve all learned our lesson when it comes to device responsibility and the awful things that can happen. Here are few examples some of our Consuro team members and clients have experienced first hand:
“I left my iPhone in an airport bathroom on the sink while I was washing my hands. I noticed it was not with me as soon as I walked out of the crowded restroom and turned right around to get it. Within that 20 seconds, someone had taken it. Thankfully it was locked, and I was able to immediately call AT&T and report it stolen.”
“At a previous workplace, we had a team of nurses come to our office to administer flu shots. My colleague left his work tablet in the conference room while he was getting his shot, and 20 minutes later he realized he’d left it there and walked over to find both the nursing staff and his tablet were gone. You never know who is trustworthy and who is not! Thankfully it was locked with an 8-digit PIN required to get in.”
“A customer of ours was on a trip to visit his son at college and took his work laptop with him to the local library for some research. He left it alone while he went to their customer service desk for a brief moment. When he returned to his work area, the laptop had been stolen. Thankfully, his device was protected by Mobile Device Management, and all the data was securely encrypted.”